For most of this year we’ve been covering scales. Long before scales there were the Greek Modes. They originally came from and were named after the regions/people in ancient Greece. For now just get yourself familiar with the names of them. They are as follows… Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.
There’s a lot to cover with modes and I don’t want to overwhelm you so I’m going to dedicate a blog post for each mode. For today’s post I’m going to cover Ionian mode. Today we know Ionian mode as the Major scale.
Let’s take a look at Ionian mode starting on the note C on the treble staff…
Now on the piano keyboard…
Remember the steps of the Major or Ionian scale is Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half. Or W,W,H,W,W,W,H. In other words C to D is a whole step. 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.
Remember, today’s Ionian mode is just another name for the Major scale. You can start the Ionian mode on any note/pitch and build from there. For example, D Ionian would look like this on the treble staff…
D Ionian on the piano keyboard…
Looks just like the D Major scale doesn’t it?
Until next time practice building and playing your Ionian modes!