What we are going to do is jumble the modes up into the order that they would be in according to the way they sound. This will help us see more clearly the difference between modes and the way they sound, and also helps to make the modal formulas easier to remember.
The Order Of Flats
| LYDIAN | IONIAN | MIXOLYDIAN | DORIAN | AEOLIAN | PHRYGIAN | LOCRIAN |
| 1 sharp | -- | 1 flat | 2 flats | 3 flats | 4 flats | 5 flats |
| # | -- | b | bb | bbb | bbbb | bbbbb |
You can now see that each of the 7 modes are one neat step away from the next. Its starting to look like these scales aren't a bunch of meaningless theory, but that they actually fit together nice and neatly, each one serving a purpose that the others can't.
We can also now see a spectrum of sounds here, ranging from bright and happy to dark and dissident. Generally, the scales that use major notes with no flats are very happy and bright sounding. The scales that use a lot of flats have a darker mood.
I will give a general and vague sense of what each scale sounds like and what it might be used for. However, my opinions on these will be very general and not something to be taken very seriously, its just a guide to help you get started. Many good musicians can alter the feeling of any scale with playing techniques and such, so just get a basic idea here and then see what you can do with it.
Spectrum of modes based on how they sound
| LYDIAN | IONIAN | MIXOLYDIAN | DORIAN | AEOLIAN | PHRYGIAN | LOCRIAN |
| brightest | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | darkest |
LYDIAN - very bright, upbeat. Good for anything very bright and upbeat such as pop, kids music, etc
IONIAN - very sweet, happy, bright. Perfect for happy songs, love songs, etc. Used for almost all childrens music
MIXOLYDIAN - middle of the road bright scale. Good for light rock, pop, country, etc
DORIAN - perfect middle ground. Not too bright, not to dark. Good for country, rock, blues.
AEOLIAN - gritty, bluesy, warm sounding rock scale. This is the standard rock and blues scale.
PHRYGIAN - dark, classical metal sound. A Randy Rhoads favorite.
LOCRIAN - very dark, dissident, brooding. Good for heavy metal, dark classical, etc
Now that we have looked at what this all means to the 'lehman', we can go on and learn a little more about the details of how this works.
Remember when I said that understanding the order of flats would make memorizing the modal formulas easier ? Now we get to find out why this is. Each of the scales that include flats, which would be 5 of them (most), are really the same as the one before with the addition of one new flat.
| LYDIAN | #4 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| IONIAN | -- | 0/0 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| MIXOLYDIAN | -- | -- | b7 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| DORIAN | -- | -- | b7 | b3 | -- | -- | -- |
| AEOLIAN | -- | -- | b7 | b3 | b6 | -- | -- |
| PHRYGIAN | -- | -- | b7 | b3 | b6 | b2 | -- |
| LOCRIAN | -- | -- | b7 | b3 | b6 | b2 | b5 |
So if you can remember the order that the flats come in, memorizing the modal formulas becomes much easier. Once you learn the order of flats, you should have a much better understanding of what makes each scale different, and why each one sounds the way it does.
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