A Circle of Modes Rob Brereton

Write down on a piece of paper a chart of the names of the modes in a circle in the following order going clockwise: ionian -- dorian -- phrygian -- lydian -- mixolydian -- aeolian -- locrian.

Now, here's how the chart works. Each time you go up one fret with your capo, you go up one mode in the circle from your original starting mode. For instance, if you're in DAA, you're playing in the ionian mode. If you put your capo on the first fret, you've gone up one mode clockwise from your mode of origin. Look at the chart. If you begin on ionian and go up one mode clockwise, you're now in dorian. If you go up two frets, you count up two modes clockwise and you're now in phrygian.

Notice also that I said mode of origin and not tuning of origin. Some of the tunings are ambiguous due to the 6 1/2 fret. The addition of this fret allows the player to be in several different modes without changing tuning. An example of this is DAd. If we use the 6th fret (and not the 6 1/2 fret), we are in mixolydian: capo I = aeolean, capo III = ionian. If we use the 6 1/2 fret (and not the 6 fret), our mode of origin is now ionian (with no capo): capo I = dorian, capo II = phrygian.

Don't forget that our key center changes also. Let's use DAd as an example again. If we use the 6 1/2 fret (and not the 6 fret) we are in the key of D major (otherwise known as D ionian). If we put the capo on the first fret, we'll see that our mode has changed from ionian to dorian and our key center has changed from D to E. So, our new "key" (for all intents and purposes) is E dorian. One more fret up (second fret capo) would put us in F# phrygian.

Rob Bereton is a musician living in Connecticut. Do you have comments or questions about his article? Contact Mr. Brereton directly by email. To learn more about him, see the Contributors section of Sweet Music Index.

And this just in from the mind of Steve Smith:
Here is a mnemonic for the order of the circle of modes on the melody string, starting with the open string and all using the 6th fret:  "My Aunt Lives In Dallas, Poor Lady!" To remember which "L" is Locrian and which one is Lydian, remember that these two are in alphabetical order in the mnemonic.