Modes and Scales

A scale is the name for a series of notes running up or down in a stepwise fashion.
Any series of notes ordered like this constitutes a scale but only a few are regularly
used and have common names.
One is the major scale, the other is the minor scale both derived from ancient modes.

A lot of traditional music, especially Scottish and Irish is termed 'Modal' because it does not follow the
conventional modern major or minor scales. It is often in the Mixolydian or Dorian mode.
Modes are simply the name given to the pattern of intervals between
each note in an octave i.e the ways of ordering a scale.

Modes and Scales can be traced back to Greek origins, where different tribes evolved different scales.
The scales ran down from a tonic note (rather than up which is the modern method) and maintained
certain intervals between notes.
Two of the scales gave rise to the modern major and modern minor scales (see table below).
Each scale started on a different note and descended by characteristic intervals.
In the middle ages, the church adopted these scales, made them ascending from a tonic note and
renamed them modes.

The Greek scales (and medieval modes) used only the natural notes (no sharps or flats)
which are equivalent to the white notes of a piano. This gives a characteristic interval
between notes in the scale (see individual modes). Providing these intervals are maintained
for a given mode, they can in modern music start on any note (including sharps and flats).

Original Greek Scales

Medieval Modes