Minor Modes Listen

    
(click image to play)

All three of these chord comps resolve to the A minor chord. Listen to how different each one sounds when compared to the others. Realize that the difference in mood has very little to do with the fact that they have different rhythms (though that obviously helps).

A Aeolian is just a fancy way of saying “A minor”. So when composing a chord progression in A Aeolian, you use chords that relate to the C major scale: A min – B dim – C maj – D min – E min – F maj – G maj – A min

A Dorian will still treat the Am as “home”, but you use chords that relate to the G major scale instead: A min – B min – C maj – D maj – E min – F# dim – G maj – A min

A Phrygian continues to treat the Am as home, but this mode uses chords that relate to the F major scale: A min – Bb maj – C maj – D min – E dim – F maj – G min – A min

To understand more about how modes work, click here. 

Ionian Mode

The Ionian Mode: Deep Dive
What are modes? Click here!

THE IONIAN MODE = also known as the Major scale.
The Ionian Mode is really just a fancy name for the Major scale. For the record, if you are playing a song in G major and you scream out “this one’s in G Ionian!”, you will not look sophisticated or musically intelligent, you will look like a douche-canoe. We mainly use the term Ionian Mode when comparing the Major scale to other modes, because we don’t want to hurt it’s feelings.

 

Check out these related posts:
Backing Tracks: Modes
Modal Magic Redux

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