Brief History Of Modes (trust me it’s important and not boring)

I get it. You don’t care about the history of the modes and just want to know how to use this stupid dorian scale already. 

But this will actually further help you understand why the modes are not nearly as important as you’ve made them out to be….and why just knowing the major and minor scales will be good enough in most cases. 

So here’s something that may blow your mind…..

Modes are barely mentioned in classical harmony textbooks and texts that I’ve studied over the years. One includes a classic textbook used in music programs throughout the country with hundreds of examples….and another written by Pyotr Tchaikovsky himself that didn’t mention modal harmony or modal scales at all. 

It wasn’t really until a book called the Lydian Chromatic Concept came out, and was read by many influential musicians like Miles Davis and Frank Zappa, that the idea of modes started to come about. 

Despite that, did modes exist before the 1950s? Of course they did. 

Many of the chord combinations I’m about to show you have been used for hundreds of years. 

My point though is this….

If Tchaikovsky and many music scholars don’t think the dorian mode is as important as diatonic and chromatic harmony….

Then maybe you shouldn’t place so much importance on it?