Not too long ago I had a very promising young student with so much potential who stopped taking lessons. My understanding is that her grandma may be teaching her now, and that is totally fine. I hope her grandma is giving her a great foundation and teaching her what she needs! I remember when I was teaching this student the modes of major (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian). She had come in to see me one day and she said, my grandma said that the modes aren’t really important and I really don’t need to learn them. They’re pretty much just for jazz. This is a really unfortunate misunderstanding of modes and their place in music as a whole, including contemporary music and current trends. This is not however an uncommon assumption from untrained musicians or even music teachers that may have little training or education as well. Fortunately, we were able to get through all the modes (of major at least) before she left.

The modes are incredibly significant for the music student and certainly the modern musician. For this particular article, I’m going to focus on popular music since it is so common to hear people today say the modes are really only important for study in jazz music. Of course, while I would argue jazz music should be popular music, let’s face it; it isn’t as popular as it could be if not as it should be.

Here’s a pretty good list of contemporary songs that make use of modal harmony (songs written largely or exclusively inside of one of these modes). Telephone, Radioactive, Can’t Stop, Thrift Shop, Royals, Born this Way. These aren’t just contemporary pop songs; these were major hits! The modes are not just significant because they are different and distinct, but they make some of the most interesting sounding and memorable melodies and chord progressions, especially in a sea of everything else being just three or four primary chords in Major (Ionian). These songs sound the way they do, feel the way they do, and have their distinctive sounds, thanks to modal harmony.

So if you are an aspiring songwriting, you definitely need to study the modes and should absolutely be exploring their sounds and feels as a writer. It can be a refreshing change when nothing is sounding new to you in a major or minor key and you decide to shake things up and write in a mode, mixolydian perhaps?  My hunch is, that is how many of these hits were written.

But let me speak for a minute about commercial music today and why every musician who desires to be a working musician needs to understand the modes. One of the biggest scenes for paid work as a musician today is the recording scene, which has changed a lot. Often, musicians that play on tracks today record their work in their home studio, maybe even their bedroom! They often find work through sites like Soundbetter or through connections they make. But the way the music comes to them, and what is expected of them is quite different than what you would see in a band or orchestra, or out of an etude book. A vast majority of music written today for streaming content (what the industry calls sync) and film will follow the trends of music made for radio, Spotify, iTunes, and the like. In fact, most often these songwriters and producers will even have a reference track in mind when they write for a Netflix show or something—and it will likely be songs that were unique, different, and popular (like the ones I listed above).

Let’s say you play the cello or the saxophone. A producer hires you to lay down a part on their track. They will likely send you a track that has either mock parts for your instrument played by a synthesizer, or nothing at all for your part. They may send you music—but many of these producers and songwriters may not read music themselves, and are even less likely to know how to transpose a part for your instrument. So, you may get a lead sheet for guitar or piano, or nothing at all.

Understanding the modal tonality will be essential if you are going to have to figure out your part by ear. If you only know major and minor and a piece is written in mixolydian, it could be extremely time consuming, frustrating, and even ineffective for you to try to do that. If you are playing cello or sax, there’s also a good chance that you will be asked to play a solo or some kind of improvised line over a bridge or chorus, or perhaps to add filler and ambiance. This is where your modal chops really come in handy! I have played on numerous recorded tracks and in live events over heavily modally influenced music. If someone asks me to play over a bridge on a piece that’s in D Lydian (and not D Major/Ionian), which by the way they may not even know, I am going to approach it quite differently. If they send me chords and what I have is: 

D                F#-       B-              E/G#   A                D             F#-         Esus4 E                 A     

I am going to recognize immediately this is not D major because the II chord is E and not E-. And I’m going to play D Lydian throughout. Sure, I am going to play G# more over the E as a chord tone, and possibly the A and Esus4 chords for that cool major 7 sound, but G natural is probably not going to fit the vibe anywhere!

The modes are interesting. They can be a ton of fun. They are probably a significant reason some of your favorite songs hit you the way they do! I would definitely encourage you to dig in to them for learning, for fun, and, someday, my hunch is, if you end up playing or recording music professionally—you’re going to need them!