Modes — a first look

We’ve now covered major, three minors, and key signatures. Before closing Part II, there’s one more concept that bridges to Greek music: modes.

What a mode is

A mode is a scale built using the same notes as another scale, but starting on a different note.

Take C Do major: C Do D Re

E Mi F Fa G Sol

A La B Si .

Now play the same seven notes, but start on D Re and end on the next D Re :

D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D

You’ve played a mode of C Do major — specifically, D Dorian. Same notes, different tonal center, completely different feel.

The seven modes

If you start on each note of C Do major in turn, you get seven modes:

Start on	Mode name	Flavor
C Do	Ionian (= major)	bright, resolved
D Re	Dorian	minor with a bright 6th
E Mi	Phrygian	dark, “Spanish/Eastern” feel
F Fa	Lydian	major with a sharp 4th — dreamy
G Sol	Mixolydian	major with a flat 7th — bluesy
A La	Aeolian (= natural minor)	classic minor
B Si	Locrian	unstable, rarely used as a tonal center

Notice: Ionian is just the major scale and Aeolian is just the natural minor. We’ve already met those — we just didn’t call them by their modal names.

Why this matters for bouzouki

Western theory frames modes as interesting alternatives to major and minor. Greek music doesn’t think of them as alternatives — it thinks in δρόμοι (literally “roads” or “paths”), which evolved from Ottoman makam, which itself shares ancient roots with the modes above.

Several Greek δρόμοι are recognizable as Western modes:

• Ousak (Ουσάκ) ≈ Phrygian-like (but with specific melodic conventions Western modes don’t track)
• Rast (Ραστ) ≈ a major-family mode
• Kiourdi (Κιουρδί) ≈ a natural minor variant

And several aren’t quite any Western mode — they use intervals like the augmented second (the sound of harmonic minor’s 6–7 step) in ways Western modes don’t. Hijaz (Χιτζάζ) is the most famous of these.

We’ll devote all of Part V to δρόμοι. This chapter is just the bridge — modes are the closest Western concept, but the Greek tradition takes them in its own direction.

That’s the end of Part II

You now have everything you need to construct any scale, read any chord progression written in Roman numerals, and understand what a key signature is.

Part III builds on this to answer the next question: where do chords come from? Spoiler: they come from scales, and the rule for building them is much simpler than you’d expect.

Recap

• A mode is a scale that uses the notes of another scale, starting on a different degree.
• There are seven modes of the major scale: Ionian (= major), Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian (= natural minor), and Locrian.
• Modes describe a flavor of melody more than a different scale — they share notes with their parent major scale but feel completely different.
• Greek δρόμοι evolved separately and overlap partially with modes — full treatment in Part V.