Printable worksheet
Modes Worksheet (the 7 Diatonic Modes, Printable, with Answers)
Free printable modes worksheet: write and identify Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian from any tonic. Answer key included.
Modes Worksheet (the 7 Diatonic Modes, Printable, with Answers)
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Name Date Score /
Answer key
Modes Worksheet (the 7 Diatonic Modes, Printable, with Answers) · Sheet #
About the Modes Worksheet
Modes Worksheet is a free, printable worksheet that gives you practice with the seven diatonic modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. It runs in your web browser with no sign-up. You can write a named mode from any tonic, identify a mode shown on the staff, or relate a mode to its parent major scale. Each sheet includes an answer key, and you can print it on A4 or US Letter paper.
Nothing you enter is uploaded. The worksheet is useful when you are learning modes for the first time, reviewing for a music theory class, or building a quick practice set.
How to use the Modes Worksheet
- Open the Exercise menu and choose what to practise: write the mode on the staff, identify the mode, relate modes to major scales, or the mixed option.
- Set the Difficulty menu to easy, medium or hard.
- Set the Questions menu to 10 or 20.
- Set the Clef option to treble or bass.
- Pick a method in Method shown in the answers: relative major or step pattern (W and H).
- Press New worksheet to generate a sheet with new tonics.
- Complete the sheet, then press Show answers. The explanation shows the notes of each mode.
- Press Print to get page 1 with the questions and page 2 with the answer key.
The settings are kept in the page address along with the Sheet number (for example, ?seed=…). Use that link to reopen or share the same sheet. The printed sheet has Name, Date and Score lines at the top.
Start with the Easy level if you are new to modes. It only uses tonics with at most one sharp or flat, such as D Dorian or G Mixolydian. Move up to Medium and then Hard when those feel comfortable.
Choose the relative method if you want to see which major scale a mode comes from. Choose the step pattern method if you are learning the whole and half step sequences.
In identify exercises, the first note on the staff is the tonic. Count every other note up from there.
What are the seven modes of the major scale?#
The seven modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Each one is built by starting the major scale on its 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th degree. D Dorian, for example, uses the notes of C major played from D to D, which is the same as the white keys from D to D.
How do I find a mode from its step pattern?#
Apply the mode’s step pattern from its tonic, using one letter name per degree. W means a whole step and H means a half step.
- Ionian (major): W-W-H-W-W-W-H
- Dorian: W-H-W-W-W-H-W
- Phrygian: H-W-W-W-H-W-W
- Lydian: W-W-W-H-W-W-H
- Mixolydian: W-W-H-W-W-H-W
- Aeolian (natural minor): W-H-W-W-H-W-W
- Locrian: H-W-W-H-W-W-W
How do the modes differ from major and minor?#
Lydian is major with a raised 4th, and Mixolydian is major with a lowered 7th. Dorian is natural minor with a raised 6th, and Phrygian is natural minor with a lowered 2nd. Locrian is natural minor with a lowered 2nd and 5th. Ionian is major, and Aeolian is natural minor.
How do you find the parent major scale of a mode?#
To find the parent major scale of a mode, move down from the mode’s tonic by the number of letter names that match its degree minus one. The note you land on is the tonic of the major scale that contains the mode.
- Find the degree of the mode: Ionian 1, Dorian 2, Phrygian 3, Lydian 4, Mixolydian 5, Aeolian 6, Locrian 7.
- Move down from the tonic by (degree − 1) letter names.
- Give that letter the sharp or flat that makes its major scale contain every note of the mode: E♭ Lydian starts on degree 4, three letters down is B, and the parent scale is B♭ major.
For example, D Dorian starts on degree 2, so move down one letter from D to reach C. D Dorian belongs to C major. G Mixolydian starts on degree 5, so move down four letters from G to reach C. A Aeolian starts on degree 6, so move down five letters from A to reach C.
On this page, set Exercise to “Relate modes to major scales” and Method shown in the answers to “Relative major” to see this explanation with each answer.
Which mode sounds brightest and which darkest?#
Lydian sounds brightest and Locrian sounds darkest. The ranking goes by how many notes are raised or lowered compared with the major scale, with raised notes making a mode brighter.
- Lydian (major with a raised 4th)
- Ionian (the major scale)
- Mixolydian (major with a lowered 7th)
- Dorian (natural minor with a raised 6th)
- Aeolian (the natural minor scale)
- Phrygian (natural minor with a lowered 2nd)
- Locrian (natural minor with a lowered 2nd and 5th)
To compare any two modes, the one higher up the list is the brighter one.