Mode Learner & Spotter
Explore the seven modes, compare their sounds and learn to spot them by ear or on the stave.
Learn the modes · listen and explore
A mode is a scale with its own pattern of tones and semitones. The tonic is the home note: changing the home note changes how the music feels. Start with a mode below, then compare it with major or natural minor on the same tonic.
Gold boxes mark useful notes to compare. Scale-degree numbers describe intervals from the tonic, not the number of black keys. ♭3 means a minor third; ♯4 means a raised fourth.
All seven modes at a glance
| Mode | Degrees from major | What changes? |
|---|
Choose your spotting challenge
One mark per question. Practice includes unlimited listening; Test/Homework uses your chosen playback limit. Accidentals are written individually, with no key signature.
Which mode is this?
Learning guide · need a hand?
Mode spotting: a quick guide
Your goal
Find the home note, then listen or look for the notes that give each mode its colour. You do not need to memorise seven new starting notes: compare modes on the same tonic.
Try an example
C major uses C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C. C Mixolydian changes B to B♭. C Dorian uses E♭ and B♭, but keeps A natural. That sixth note helps you tell it apart from C natural minor, which has A♭.
Easy to mix up
D Dorian shares its notes with C major, but D is home. A set of notes alone does not tell the whole story: listen to which note feels like the centre. These exercises establish the tonic before the example and return to it at the end.
A tip for your next go
First decide whether the third sounds major or minor. Then check the second, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh for the mode’s characteristic sound. Locrian has a diminished tonic chord, so it is deliberately less settled.
Further reading: Open Music Theory: diatonic modes.