Dorian is a slightly darker sounding mode, with a sense of sadness and struggle at times, only occasionally hinting on hope and happiness.

• To play Dorian mode on the piano, just play all the white notes on a piano, starting on D.
• Dorian mode consists of notes with the following intervals: T-S-T-T-T-S-T
• As an example, make sure that “F#” is at the top of the circle. You can see that in order to play F# dorian mode, you simply need to play an E major scale, but concentrating on the F#.
• To see what notes are in an F# dorian scale, first put F# at the top of the circle and look at the note in the Dorian position — that is E, so F# dorian is achieved by using the E major scale. Then move E to the top of the circle and you can see what notes are in F# dorian, because they are the notes from the E major scale: F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E.
• To play chords in F# dorian, first put F# at the top of the circle and look at the note in the Dorian position — that is E, so you play chords from the key of E major. Then move E to the top of the circle and you can see those chords, which are the chords for F# dorian: F#m, G#m, A, B, C#m, D#dim, E.
• Play any major scale but start on (concentrate on) the 2nd note in order to achieve a dorian scale.
• F# dorian is relative to (contains all the same notes as) E major (or E ionian).