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Lessons: Lesson #238: Modes and the C Aeolian Scale |
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Pages: 1 2 3 4
Suggested Tempo: 130 |
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Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking. I went over the Aeolian scale a few weeks ago in the A Guide for Beginners - The A Minor Scale lesson. However, I've received a couple of e-mails over the last few weeks from a few people who are trying to get a grip on modes, and I thought it might be informative to talk about how the Aeolian scale relates to the major scale.
For a thorough explanation of modes, look at my Modes of the Major Scale lesson. I'll recap the modes that come from the C major scale, which are:
- C Ionian (Major): C · D · E · F · G · A · B · C
- D Dorian: D · E · F · G · A · B · C · D
- E Phrygian: E · F · G · A · B · C · D · E
- F Lydian: F · G · A · B · C · D · E · F
- G Mixolydian: G · A · B · C · D · E · F · G
- A Aeolian (Minor): A · B · C · D · E · F · G · A
- B Locrian: B · C · D · E · F · G · A · B
Now, this is great when you're looking at C major, but what about other keys? Let's say I want to know what the notes are for a C aeolian scale. One way to determine this is to figure out what the parent scale of C aeolian is - meaning from what major scale is the C aeolian constructed.
Aeolian scales are constructed from the 6th degree of a parent scale. They are also synonomous with the natural minor scale. There are a couple of different minor scales (dorian, phrygian, melodic minor, etc.), but I think aeolian is nost closely associated with the term minor scale. If we look at the modes for C major above, we can see that A aeolian is constructed from the C major scale, since A is the 6th degree of a C major scale. The chart below shows the degrees and notes for the C major scale:
| Note | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
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| Degree | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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So, for C aeolian, we need to find the major scale for which C is the 6th degree. If we look at Eb major, we see that the notes and degrees are:
| Note | Eb | F | G | Ab | Bb | C | D |
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| Degree | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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You can see why it helps to know your keys and what sharps and flats are contained within them. Since C aeolian is constructed from the Eb major scale, we can also be sure that it contains the same notes. Thus, the notes in a C aeolian scale are:
- C Aeolian: C · D · Eb · F · G · Ab · Bb · C
Alternatively, we can also think about how a C aeolian scale is constructed relative to itself. In other words, what are the seven notes that make up the C aeolian scale relative to C and not Eb major (from which it is derived)? If we think about it this way, we get the following chart:
| Note | C | D | Eb | F | G | Ab | Bb |
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| Degree | 1 | 2 | b3 | 4 | 5 | b6 | b7 |
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To further confuse you, we can use this approach to determine all of the modes of the major scale with C as the root, and what parent scales they come from:
- C Ionian (C major): C · D · E · F · G · A · B
- C Dorian (Bb major): C · D · Eb · F · G · A · Bb
- C Phrygian (Ab major): C · Db · Eb · F · G · Ab · Bb
- C Lydian (G major): C · D · E · F# · G · A · B
- C Mixolydian (F major): C · D · E · F · G · A · Bb
- C Aeolian (Eb major): C · D · Eb · F · G · Ab · Bb
- C Locrian (Db major): C · Db · Eb · F · Gb · Ab · Bb
Thus, you can see that C ionian does not share that many common notes with C aeolian, and thus, they have very different sounds. Either method of figuring out the notes for a given mode is fine. As long as you have some way of thinking about how to determine the notes of a particular mode, you're ahead of the game. Let's take a look at the example below so you can hear the difference between the C ionian (i.e. major) scale, and the C aeolian (i.e. minor scale). |
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