The word ‘mode’ comes from the Latin for ‘manner, or method’, but musical modes all originated in Ancient Greece, so they have Greek names. Put simply, a mode is a type of scale. Scales are an ordered set of notes with a clear start and end point. If we change just one of the notes in a standard scale, we can call the scale a mode. Modes in music are scale-like patterns that can begin on any note of the scale, not just the root.

Consider the C major scale that starts on C and ends on the C an octave higher. But because the C major scale has seven distinct pitches, it is possible to build seven different modes on the major scale. For example, if we take the notes of the C major scale (C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C), keep this same set of pitches but begin the sequence from the second scale degree (D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D), we have just created the second mode (known as the Dorian mode). If we keep the same set of pitches but begin from the third scale degree (E – F – G – A – B – C – D – E), then we have built the third mode (known as the Phrygian mode). We can continue this pattern until we have built a mode from every single pitch in the set. Each mode evokes its own mood and has a unique color and sound.

The modes were named after various regions, perhaps to represent the people who lived there, because Greek musical theorists were philosophers too, and associated the arts with aspects of morality. There are seven main categories of mode have been part of musical notation since the Middle Ages.

So, the list goes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Some of them are major modes, some are minor, and some are ambiguous. Some modes are sadder or holier than others.

Comparing this concept with Hindustani Music, the Modes are analogous to Thaat (Skeleton of the Raag). The modern Thaat system was created by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860–1936), an influential musicologist in the field of classical music in the early decades of the twentieth century. Bhatkhande modelled his system after the Carnatic Melakarta classification, and it is an abridged version of all Gharanas during Bhatkhande's time.

Note: The Charukesi Raag, which is very famous and one of the most played Carnatic Ragas, is a well known Raag in and after Bhatkhande's time. Yet this Raga has not been considered to belong to any of the Thaat. The genuine and honest answer for this is culture, and it manoeuvrers us either into broad classification or acute depth in the music field.

In the Carnatic Music System the Ragas are classified (Melakarta, i.e., Modes in Western and thaat in Hindustani) into 72 variants (Which will be explained in the upcoming lectures). Some prefer to construct music with a wide variety of Modes (Thaat) in small pieces whereas some stick to one Mode (Thaat) and enjoy the tremendous depth of that Mode (Western), Thaat (Hindustani) or Melakartha Raga (Carnatic).


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