Bryan Fusilier

In Western Tonal music, which is what we’re discussing in the basic and intermediate theory lessons, there are 7 different primary scales or modes that we will be dealing with. If you’ve been exploring music theory for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly run into many different types of scales. You’ve probably heard of the pentatonic scale, which is a five note scale. You might have even heard of some of the more exotic scales, for example the whole tone scale, which is a specific kind of scale that is made up six notes. We’ll be looking at those variant scales and other like them a bit later, but for now we’re going to start with what are known as the Diatonic scales.

Diatonic scales are seven note scales that are made up of a particular arrangement of half-steps and whole-steps. Specifically each of these scales is made up of five whole-steps and two half-steps. The thing that defines each of these scales is “where the half-steps fall”. In tonal music, the half-steps of a scale are what gives them their particular flavor. They are the two most critical notes in any scale because they provide the sense of tension and release that provides the harmonic motion of a scale. We are going to discuss harmonic motion in great detail later when we begin to stack the various notes of the scales into chords, but for now, we simply need to become aware of the names of the seven modes (Scales) that we will be spending much of our time on in this intermediate section of the music theory course.

Here are the seven primary modes (scales) of western tonal music.

1. Ionian (Major Scale)
2. Dorian
3. Phrygian
4. Lydian
5. Mixolydian
6. Aeolian (Minor Scale)
7. Locrian

There are two things that you need to simply memorize at this point in time. The first is obviously the Names of each of these modes (scales). But just as important is to know the numerical order of these modes. What I mean by this is simply that you need to know that Ionian is the 1st mode. Dorian is the 2nd mode and so on. This is going to be important when I break down how each of these modes are created. And for the guitar lessons, it is the “Key” to understanding how to utilize the Five Boxes in fingering these different scales on the guitar. We’re finally done with all the introductory material and are ready to really move into talking about music theory.

Next up, The Major Scale