Free Piano Modes Chart – Perfect To Practice Modes & Get Started With Modal Interchange

Parallel Piano Modes Chart
Relative Piano Modes Chart

What Is Modality in Music?

Modes are more than just scales; they’re a way of understanding and categorizing diverse musical sounds. From Ionian’s bright and uplifting sound to Phrygian’s exotic flavor, and even Locrian’s unstable nature, all 7 modes of the major scale serve their purpose. Whether you’re a beginner looking to deepen your understanding of music theory or a seasoned piano player looking to enhance your improvisation skills, practicing modes and incorporating them into your musical repertoire can open up a new world of harmonic possibilities. That’s why our free piano modes chart is perfect for the everyday piano player looking to enhance their skills. These piano scales charts include valuable information like:

  • 7 Modes Of Major Scale: Learn to play the 7 modes of the major scale on the piano. This includes the Ionian mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, Aeolian mode, & Locrian mode.
  • Comprehensive Coverage: Over 28 charts encompassing scales for both relative and parallel modes across all 12 keys on the piano, ensuring a complete exploration of modal theory.
  • Proper Fingering: Detailed instructions on how to play each scale with correct fingering, providing invaluable assistance for novice and experienced pianists alike.
  • Roman Numeral Chord Formulas: Includes Roman numeral chord formulas to enhance comprehension of the progressions for each mode and explore songwriting possibilities.
  • List of Available Chords: Clear presentation of available chords for each scale, empowering musicians to understand and apply different modal tonalities effectively.
  • Whole Step & Half Step Formulas: Clear depiction of whole step and half step patterns within each scale, to gain a deeper understanding of intervallic relationships within each mode.
  • Convenient Format: Presented in a user-friendly format for easy reference and practical application during practice sessions, rehearsals, or lessons. These PDFS are both mobile and desktop friendly.
  • Professional Quality: Created with meticulous attention to detail and accuracy, ensuring a high-quality resource that meets the standards of aspiring musicians and educators.

Parallel Modes & Relative Modes Piano Scales Charts

What people often fail to mention when it comes to learning modes is that there are two types of modes. There’s parallel modes and relative modes, and it’s easy to remember the difference as they’re like two sides of the same coin.

  • Relative modes share the same scale but have a different tonic.
  • Parallel modes share the same tonic but have a different scale.

By making slight alterations to the major or minor scale, we can switch to a different mode while staying within our tonal center. Practicing our parallel modes allows us to better hear the differences between the modes, and further understand what their unique characteristics are and how the modes relate to one another. By thinking of each of these modes as their own independent scale through practicing parallel modes, it will in turn make playing relative modes a lot easier.

That’s why our piano charts cover how to play both any parallel and relative mode of whatever key you’re in. Both types of modes serve their purpose & being able to alternate between let’s say the C major scale and any of the parallel or relative C Major scale modes will give more variety in your playing.

Modal Interchange Chart

These piano modes charts double really well as a modal interchange chart. If you don’t know, modal interchange, sometimes called modal mixture, is the process of borrowing chords from parallel modes, which can bring unexpected moods into your music. It’s a powerful tool many composers use, but trying to remember all the parallel modes of whatever key you’re in can get overwhelming. That’s why with our piano modes chart, with just a quick glance you can easily borrow a chord from major, minor, dorian, or whatever mode it is you want to borrow from. These versatile music modes chart are the perfect jumping off point for getting started with modal interchange.

Download Our Free Piano Modes Chart

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