Modes and Chords: A Note-Number Guide
A mode tells you which notes are available relative to a starting note, or tonic. A chord selects particular notes from that collection. In the tables below, all numbers are compared with the major scale on the same tonic. For example, ♭3 means “lower the third note of the major scale.”
Flats and sharps show which scale degree changed, not just which piano key to press. This lets each note letter keep its own place in the scale. Also, the note you play first does not necessarily determine the mode: the note that feels like home does.
Hear the idea on the white keys
Choose an example to see how the notes and the musical center relate.
D Dorian
Notes: D E F G A B C
These are all white keys. If D feels like home, they create a Dorian sound. Try playing them over a D minor chord and resolving your phrases to D.
Modes and chords on their tonic
The last column gives examples of chords you can build using notes from that mode, with the mode’s tonic as the chord root.
| Mode | Notes changed from major | Example chords on the tonic |
|---|---|---|
| Ionian | — | Major, maj7, maj9, 6 |
| Dorian | ♭3, ♭7 | Minor, m7, m9, m6 |
| Phrygian | ♭2, ♭3, ♭6, ♭7 | Minor, m7, m7(♭9) |
| Lydian | ♯4 | Major, maj7, maj7(♯11) |
| Mixolydian | ♭7 | Major, 7, 9 |
| Aeolian | ♭3, ♭6, ♭7 | Minor, m7, m9 |
| Locrian | ♭2, ♭3, ♭5, ♭6, ♭7 | Diminished, m7♭5 |
Chord note-number key
This is a general chord reference. Not every chord below belongs to every mode above. For example, an augmented chord does not occur on the tonic of any of these seven modes using their notes alone.
| Chord | Note numbers |
|---|---|
| Major | 1, 3, 5 |
| Minor | 1, ♭3, 5 |
| Diminished (dim) | 1, ♭3, ♭5 |
| Augmented (aug) | 1, 3, ♯5 |
| Sus2 | 1, 2, 5 |
| Sus4 | 1, 4, 5 |
| 6 | 1, 3, 5, 6 |
| m6 | 1, ♭3, 5, 6 |
| 7 | 1, 3, 5, ♭7 |
| Maj7 | 1, 3, 5, 7 |
| m7 | 1, ♭3, 5, ♭7 |
| m7♭5 | 1, ♭3, ♭5, ♭7 |
| Dim7 | 1, ♭3, ♭5, ♭♭7 |
| 9 | 1, 3, 5, ♭7, 9 |
| Maj9 | 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 |
| m9 | 1, ♭3, 5, ♭7, 9 |
| Add9 | 1, 3, 5, 9 |
Reading extensions: 9 is the second scale degree treated as an upper extension; ♭9 corresponds to ♭2, and ♯11 corresponds to ♯4. A chord labeled “9” includes a seventh; “add9” does not.