To get some practice with modes, lets have a think about the key of C major. Refer to the interactive circle of fifths to help you.
The key of C major includes the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B. Or, looking at the circle of fifths, F, C, G, D, A, E and B. The line in the circle tells us all of the notes in the key we’re interested in. The third note of the key is what we’re interested in today. For the key of C major, our third note is E. In the circle, you can see that it is the penultimate note before the dividing line.
The note E is contained in the major scale for all of the notes in the key of C. Put another way, every major scale in A, B, C, D, E, F and G contain an E somewhere. And if you remember from the post on phrygian mode, E phrygian is simply a C major scale and phrygian mode is a kind of oppsing major scale.
So what you can do here is try playing the major scale for each of the notes A, B, C, D, E, F and G, but concentrating on the note E. You will be cycling through all 7 modes.
Things to bear in mind here and rememeber while you are practicing, are that E is the third note of C major. It is a “major” third because it is the middle note of our C major triad. And the third chord in any major key is always minor. So, our third note from a major scale is the major third of the major triad, making the first chord major. In the key in question, it is actually the root of a minor chord. It is also the root note of the phrygian mode using the parent major key. And phrygian mode is the “anti” major scale, in a way.
Tags: circle of fifths, modes, phrygian, scale, theory, video
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