I can never seem to remember all of the scale modes, so since teaching something seems to be the best way to learn I decided to create a musical scale modes chart to help drive this home.
Per Wikipedia, “The modern Western modes consist of seven scales related to the familiar major and minor keys.
Although the names of the modern modes are Greek and some have names used in ancient Greek theory for some of the harmoniai, the names of the modern modes are conventional and do not indicate a link between them and ancient Greek theory, and they do not present the sequences of intervals found even in the diatonic genus of the Greek octave species sharing the same name.
Modern Western modes use the same set of notes as the major scale, in the same order, but starting from one of its seven degrees in turn as a “tonic”, and so present a different sequence of whole and half steps. The interval sequence of the major scale being T-T-s-T-T-T-s, where “s” means a semitone (half step) and “T” means a whole tone (whole step), it is thus possible to generate the following scales:”
Musical Scale Modes Matrix| Key | Ionian | Dorian | Phrygian | Lydian | Mixolydian | Aeolian | Locrian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C Major | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
| G Major | G | A | B | C | D | E | F# |
| D Major | D | E | F# | G | A | B | C# |
| A Major | A | B | C# | D | E | F# | G# |
| E Major | E | F# | G# | A | B | C# | D# |
| B Major | B | C# | D# | E | F# | G# | A# |
| F Major | F | G | A | Bb | C | D | E |
| Bb Major | Bb | C | D | Eb | F | G | A |
| Eb Major | Eb | F | G | Ab | Bb | C | D |
| Ab Major | Ab | Bb | C | Db | Eb | F | G |
| Db Major | Db | Eb | F | Gb | Ab | Bb | C |
| Gb Major | Gb | Ab | Bb | Cb | Db | Eb | F |
