Ionian
Ionian mode is your typical major scale. If someone says they’re playing a major scale, this is probably the one they’re talking about.
- To play Ionian mode on the piano, just play all the white notes on a piano, starting on C.
- Ionian mode consists of notes with the following intervals: T-T-S-T-T-T-S
- As an example, make sure that “C” is at the top of the circle. You can see that in order to play C ionian mode, you simply need to play a C major scale, but concentrating on the C.
- To see what notes are in a C ionian scale, first put C at the top of the circle and look at the note in the Ionian position — that is C, so C ionian is achieved by using the C major scale. Then move C to the top of the circle and you can see what notes are in C ionian, because they are the notes from the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
- To play chords in C ionian, first put C at the top of the circle and look at the note in the Ionian position — that is C, so you play chords from the key of C major. Then move C to the top of the circle and you can see those chords, which are the chords for C ionian: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim.
- Play any major scale but start on (concentrate on) the 1st note in order to achieve an ionian scale.
- C ionian is relative to (contains all the same notes as) A aeolian.