Introduction to Music

for those wanting to become musicans, or improve their musicianship

Scales and Modes

Rather than a long blog article about scales, I’ll point you to a video I did on YouTube about scales and modes. I’ve added a few things below the video, so come back here when you’re done with the video.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHhf7mB4180]
Types of scales and modes

There are basically 2 types of scales, Major and Minor that are used the most. The Minor scale has 3 variations. As to modes, which are used less often, there are 7, one for each letter used in music. The Major scale is also known as the Ionian mode while the Minor scale is also known as the Aeolian scale. There are of course, other scales, from blues to whole-tone that are used less often.

One of the easiest ways to remember the correct order of the various scales is by the half-steps, whole-steps order between the notes. Here’s a list:

Major:
whole whole half whole whole whole half
(C-D) (D-E) (E-F) (F-G) (G-A) (A-B) (B-C)

Minor:

Natural: whole half whole whole half whole whole
Harmonic: whole half whole whole half whole+half half (note augmented 2nd from 6 to 7)
Melodic: whole half whole whole whole whole half (Ascending ONLY)

Dorian:
whole half whole whole whole half whole

Phrygian:
half whole whole whole half whole whole

Lydian:
whole whole whole half whole whole half

Mixolydian:
whole whole half whole whole half whole

Locrian:
half whle whole half whole whole whole