How to Apply the Modes to songwriting part 2: The Dorian mode

Modal Applications part 2: The Dorian Mode

Okay, in this lesson, I will be going over some of the many ways that the Dorian mode can be used, from writing melodies and solos to building chords and taking advantage of the overtones of this mode.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what a mode is, it’s basically the same thing as a scale, but it’s called a mode because you can get different scales by using the same pattern but by starting from a different note. I will be writing everything out in tab form as well to make sure that this is as easy to understand as possible.

Now in the previous lesson to this I was using the Ionian mode and now I’ve moved onto the Dorian mode which is the next one up in something called the diatonic series.

Are you making words up here buddy?

No, I’m serious, but it’s mostly just funny sounding words solely there so that musicians know exactly which mode to use rather than using trial and error.

I wrote down a phrase to remember in a previous lesson on the Dorian that I uploaded to this site so that you could remember the pattern that the modes made.

Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian

There is no eighth mode as then the scale repeats itself. And the rhyme to remember this order of the modes goes:-

I
Don’t
Play
Lame
Music
Any
Longer

So now I’ll show you how to find the Dorian mode if you were previously using the Ionian mode that I showed you last time. Now when you look at them side by side in the same key they don’t look similar at all, as I’ve demonstrated below:

Ionian mode in E

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|-------6----8---9--||-9----8----6------|------------------|
D||-----------6---7---|--9----------------||---------------9--|--7---6-----------|
A||---7---9-----------|-------------------||------------------|----------9---7---|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

Dorian mode in E

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|------------7---9--||--9---7-----------|------------------|
D||-----------------7-|--9----11----------||----------11---9--|--7---------------|
A||---7---9---10------|-------------------||------------------|-----10---9---7---|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

So how do you find one by using the other? Well, look what happens if I take the Ionian mode, but start from the second note up in it rather than starting from the first note

Ionian mode in E

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|-------6----8---9--||-9----8----6------|------------------|
D||-----------6---7---|--9----------------||---------------9--|--7---6-----------|
A||---7---9-----------|-------------------||------------------|----------9---7---|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

Dorian mode in F# (F sharp)

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|------------9---11-||-11---9-----------|------------------|
D||-----------------9-|-11----13----------||----------13---11-|--9---------------|
A||---9---11--12------|-------------------||------------------|-----12---11---9--|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

Or, to show how it looks if I keep the shape as similar as possible to the Ionian mode I’ve shown above (to make it easier to understand):

Dorian mode in F# (F sharp)

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|--6----8----9---11-||-11---9----8---6--|------------------|
D||-------6---7---9---|-------------------||------------------|--9---7---6-------|
A||---9---------------|-------------------||------------------|--------------9---|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

However, most people will prefer to play the Dorian mode the way I first wrote it out, simply because it’s easier to get your fingers into those position most of the time than it is to get them into the positions I’ve just written purely to show you where I’ve got it from. Most of the time guitarists like to have these little ‘boxes’ of notes where they can skip strings and get some arpeggios and whatever going rather than simply having a long line of notes up one string which they are then stuck with. Of course once you have memorized the patterns that the modes make, you can plonk them down anywhere on the guitar neck and start playing, but when you are beginning, you want to be choosing ways of doing things that give you less work to do rather than just doing the difficult stuff.

A good way to think of this is how you would start trying to cook. You start trying to make stuff like beans on toast, boiled eggs and maybe mashed potatoes first, and then you start moving onto the complicated stuff that requires you to buys load of different ingredients and spices. You don’t start with the complicated stuff straight away because you know that it will most likely not work, and it will also be a big blow to your self-esteem. Start out with what you’re comfortable with, and then gradually increase the difficulty.

So now that we have the Dorian mode, we want to know how it sounds overall, so we know when to use it. Well, the Dorian mode has some notes that sound sad, like the minor 3^rd, but also has some notes that sound happier, like the major 6^th:

Dorian mode in E

E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-------------------|------------7---9--||--9---7-----------|------------------|
D||-----------------7-|--9----11----------||----------11---9--|--7---------------|
A||---7---9---10------|-------------------||------------------|-----10---9---7---|
E||-------------------|-------------------||------------------|------------------|

This means that depending on what notes you choose from it, you can use the Dorian mode to sound happy or sad, or a bit of both at the time. Overall the Dorian mode sound slightly jazzy with a general bluesy tone to it, as it is very similar to a scale called the minor pentatonic scale, which other users on this website have put up lessons about. Carlos Santana uses this scale quite a lot.

If you were to write a phrase that went like this (this is from a song I’ve written, but you’re fine to practice playing to it and all that legal rubbish. Basically, as long as you don’t get paid for this song then you’re fine) then it would sound happy.

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||-----------7----6-|-----------6------||-----------7----6-|-----------6-------|
D||------9-----------|-7----9---------9-||------9-----------|-7----9---------9--|
A||-7----------------|------------------||-7----------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

However, if you were to play a phrase like this from the Dorian mode, then it would sound sad

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------7-----||------------------|------------7------|
D||------9----7------|-7-----9--------9-||------9----7------|-7-----9---------9-|
A||-7-------------10-|------------------||-7-------------10-|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Can you see which notes in choosing that make these phrases sound happy or sad? Look closely and you’ll see that the sad phrase contains the minor 3rd and the happy phrase contains the major 6th. You can put both of these together and you’ll have the main riff for one of my songs, but playing it over and over again, you’ll hear that it neither sounds too happy or too sad. It’s kind of a mixture of both. I’m not saying that my song is any good at all, but I wrote it to see how if I could get both a happy sounding lick and a sad sounding lick to work together well.

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------7-----||------------7---6-|------------6------|
D||------9----7------|-7-----9--------9-||-------9----------|-7-----9---------9-|
A||-7-------------10-|------------------||-7----------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

This is one way that you could take advantage of the Dorian modes’ natural sound when you are writing a melody. There are parts of it that will sound happy, and parts that will sound sad. Learning which notes sound like which will give you a big advantage when you use this mode, and if you want then you can actually use this scale for a typical 12-bar blues thing if you wanted.

The key to using this scale in a melody is understanding that because of its double-toned nature, it won’t sound as mournful, or as happy as some scales will. Instead, it is the ‘halfway’ choice, with a bit of jazz and a bit of blues. Songs written using this mode at some point during the song include “Killer on the loose” and “Don’t Believe a word” by Thin Lizzy and also “Number of the beast” by Iron Maiden.

Now, how do you get chords from the mode?

The same way you did with the Ionian mode, the only difference is that the pattern of the chords has slightly changed. I have written both below for you to see where this new pattern has come from.

Do you see how the pattern has changed? As the whole mode has moved one note along in the pattern, the chords have also been moved one position along in the scale. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what a diminished chord is, or even if you have no chord knowledge at all yet, as I’m tabbing it all out note for note below. So if you were to put a chord on every note in the Dorian mode in E it would look something like this:

(be aware that if I put two chords separated by and ‘or’ it means that they are the same chord, just in a different position on the guitar fret-board)

   E minor            F# minor            G Major            A Major
E||-0--------------7-|-2--------------9-||-3----------------|-0--------------9--|
B||-0--------------8-|-2--------------10||-3-------------12-|-2--------------10-|
G||-0--------------9-|-2--------------11||-4-------------12-|-2--------------9--|
D||-2-----(or)-----9-|-4-----(or)-----11||-5-----(or)----12-|-2------(or)----7--|
A||-2--------------7-|-4--------------9-||-5-------------10-|-0-----------------|
E||-0----------------|-2----------------||-3----------------|-------------------|

   B minor            C# Diminished       D Major            E minor (Back at the start)
E||-2-------------10-|---------------15-||---------------14-|-7--------------15-|
B||-3-------------12-|-5-------------14-||-7-------------15-|-8--------------17-|
G||-4-------------11-|-6-------------12-||-7-------------14-|-9--------------16-|
D||-4-----(or)----9--|-5-----(or)----11-||-7-----(or)----12-|-9------(or)----14-|
A||-2----------------|-4----------------||-5----------------|-7-----------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

These chords are laid over the note of the Dorian modes, with each note in the mode acting as a root note. Look at the notes I’ve highlighted, and you should see the Dorian mode written out as the root notes from the chords.

Apart from this there’s not much additional theory to learn, it’s just practicing the mode to remember what it feels like. It’s probably quite well-used mode in most walks of music, particularly power metal and 8o’s rock/metal because it can sound angry but with a lighter side to it.

That’s pretty much it for the Dorian mode, but if you have any questions at all about how to use this mode or if you feel I’ve left anything out, then feel free to let me know. I hope that this lesson has helped some of you out there.

Take care and I’ll see you next time!