Today we know D Dorian mode as closely resembling the D Minor scale. Lets’ review the D minor scale below…
And now D Dorian mode on the treble staff…
Notice the difference?
D minor has one flat in the scale (B flat) but D Dorian mode has no flats. Now take a look at the difference on the piano keyboard below…
D minor
D Dorian Mode highlighted below…
Another way to think of D Dorian mode is playing all the notes of the C major scale except you start on D and end in D playing only the white keys on the piano.
The steps of Dorian mode are W H W W W H W. In other words D to E is a whole step, E to F is a half step, F to G is a whole step, G to A is a whole step, A to B is a whole step, B to C is a half step, C to D is a whole step.
You can start Dorian mode on any note/root/tonic. So for example if you want to start on the note C, then C Dorian would look like this…
C Dorian on the piano keyboard using solfege…
Again the steps of Dorian mode are W H W W W H W.
Notice C Dorian looks similar to the C minor scale. The only difference is C Dorian has the note A in the scale where C minor has A flat in the scale.
Until next time practice building and playing Dorian modes!