Play these notes starting on C and you're playing the C major scale (also known as the Ionian mode – the 'first' mode). Start on D and you're playing the second mode (D Dorian, as it happens). By the ...

Writing a song is just like baking a cake or painting a picture, there is a specific method and technique that will allow you to accomplish your goal. Of course, your own style and creativity will ...

From their meaning to their history in Western music, here's an easy guide to modes. The word ‘mode’ comes from the Latin for ‘manner, or method’ but musical modes all originated in ancient Greece, so ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Alex Skolnick is known for his jazz trio these days, but he started out as the fret-melting ...

PRODUCER WEEK 2025: For today's free and easy music producers, the knotty business of music theory has always had a slight whiff of the uncool about it. Talk of Major and Minor scales conjure up ...

Only the order of tones and semitones is different. Both keys have the same key signature, shown here:. Because they share the same key signature and the same notes, it is common to modulate or change ...