SCALE-MODE-TRIAD-INVERSION EXERCISE FOR THE PIANO
CHORD - MODE
C major - Ionian
E minor - Phrygian
F major - Lydian
G major - Mixolydian
A minor - Aeolian
B diminished - Locrian
As you can see on the exercise, we play a different mode on every note of the C major scale. Hence, if you start on F and play all the white keys up to the next D, that would be a Dorian scale, if we start on the E note, that means we will be playing Phrygian scale, and so on and so forth. Every mode has a different pattern of tones and semitones, we could say they have distinctive characters. Worth noticing that in Guido D'Arezzo's time, each mode was used to portray a specific "mood". For example: The Lydian mode was "happy", the Phrygian "incited anger", or the Aeolian (our current minor natural scale) was "tearful and pious". A very useful tip when studying these modes is to sing the notes while we are playing them, so we can get use to the sound of them. Every mode is associated with a specific triad as appear in the chart above. The goal of this exercise is to have a deeper understanding of every aspect of the scale in order to be able to improvise or play harmonic accompaniment either with the right or the left hands. The speed given would be the goal, but you should start very slow and accurately.
