BENJAMIN K. SHISLER Go to my music page Go to my homepage

Dictionary of Modes with Associated Intervals and Chords

Herein is a complete listing of the "reasonable" septatonic modes along with the common intervals and chords that share their first note with the tonic of the mode. By reasonable, I mean "similar to the major scale": specifically, these modes contain no more than three contiguous semitones with notes, and and no more than two contiguous semitones without notes. (The major scale is actually stricter.) All possible modes meeting these criteria are included (I leave it as a challenge to fellow musico-mathematicians to prove or disprove this claim), although, for many of them, I don't know their names.

If you find this Dictionary interesting, or if you find any mistakes, or if you have any additions, questions, or comments, please email bks@christa.unh.edu. Be sure to check out the corresponding Dictionary of Intervals and Chords with Associated Modes. If you are feeling adventurous, you might also want to check out my Dictionary of English Phonesthemes.

• Field 1: Tonic position of mode relative to Ionian
• Field 2: Mode Name
• Field 3: Alterations from Ionian in parentheses
• Field 4: 12 bit binary code: 1=semitone with note, 0=semitone without note
• Field 5: Spelling of mode in 3 character code
• Field 6: Intervals and chords with tonic note found in mode
• Field 7: Modes that differ by exactly one note

• Dictionary of Modes, Part 2
• Dictionary of Modes, Part 3
• Dictionary of Modes, Part 4
• Dictionary of Modes, Part 5