Saxophone Forum


by Freaky McPants
(12 posts)
19 years ago

Church Modes

Can anyone tell me what "Church Modes" are? For example (Ionian, Dorian). I saw them at musictheory.net on their scale ear trainer, but they dont explain them at all. Cursed music theory!!

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  1. by peter090
    (155 posts)

    19 years ago

    Re: Church Modes

    The short explaination is that the church modes are the notes of the major scale starting on different scale degees So if we are talking about the church modes based on teh key of C the modes would be ionian C - C dorian D - D phrygian E - E lydian F - F mixolydian G - G aeolian A - A locrian B -B As far as jazz goes it is really just a convenient way to talk about a specific group of notes and you can make alterations to the modes for example G mixolydian (#11) would be G A B C# D E F G This is not a church mode but the terminology makes it easier to describe that set of pitches.

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