Beginner Bass Base: The Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian & Aeolian

Signaling your emotions and moods to the world around you, you provide subtle and not-so-subtle clues via your facial expressions. When you’re happy and you want everyone to know it, you raise the corners of your lips into a smile. When you’re sad, you lower them. Your mouth may open when you’re showing surprise. Let’s not forget the baring of the teeth when things get…intense. All it takes to show your emotions and moods is a small change in your face. Musicians convey their emotions and moods through their choice of notes. They use subtle changes to produce harmony that sounds happy (major), sad (minor), intense (Mixolydian) — or, they may surprise you with a combination (like Dorian). Certain notes lowered or raised by a half-step have the power to suddenly take a musical phrase into a new direction: from happy to sad, from mild to intense, from smooth to edgy, and vice versa. Training your ears enables you to create all kinds of musical moods. Since music is rooted in scales, recognizing each scale’s unique sound, and being able to identify how one changed note can alter the mood, are essential skills for all musicians.

In the Issue 12 of Bass Magazine, I discussed how you train your ear to hear the functional harmony of any note, no matter what octave it’s in. I also elaborated on the importance of singing the individual intervals of the major scale while playing them on your bass. (You can also find that column on my website at PatrickPfeifferBass.com). Please make sure you have a solid handle on the fingering of the major scale — you’ll need it for this chapter of your ear training. Example 1 is the pattern of the major scale on your bass. (In this diagram, the diamond shape is the root, and the solid dots are the other scale tones.)

Pick a note with which to start the major scale. Make sure it’s a pitch that sits in a comfortable range for your voice so you can sing along as you play the scale, without straining. Play it and sing along with it until you’re used to the sound and the range. As you’re playing and singing the scale, keep your fingering consistent so that your hands and your ears forge a connection and can relate to the notes with ease. You’re developing your muscle memory.

The major scale is our reference for all the other scales. It’s usually the easiest for us to identify, and we can hear if a note does not fit in. When you sing the major scale, sing it using numbers for the notes. The first note of the scale is “one,” which is the root. If it’s the C major scale, that note would be C. “Two” is the 2nd note, which in the C major scale would be D. This is followed by “three” (E in the C major scale), “four” (F in the C major scale), “five” (G in the Cmajor scale), “six” (A in the C major scale), “seven” (B in the C major scale) and finally “eight,” which is the octave of the “one” and lands you right back on the root (C).

It’s important to know the numbers for the notes, because they help your ear distinguish between different scales. Yes, you’ve read that right — there’s more to music than just the major scale. Changing just one note will give you a brand new scale with a brand new fancy name. Speaking of which, it’s time I introduced you to the official name of the major scale: Ionian. Ionian is the official term for the major scale. 

Once you’ve gotten used to the sound of the Ionian and are able to sing and play it flawlessly and confidently, you’re ready for the next fancy name introduction, the Mixolydian scale. Play the major scale, the Ionian, and sing it starting on the low root, the “one.” Sing all the numbers as you have been doing for the major scale, but when you reach “seven,” play and sing it a half-step lower. This gives you a flat seven (b7) and turns your Ionian into a Mixolydian. Play and sing along many times until you can hear the sound of the Mixolydian just as well as the Ionian.

I’ve shown the proper bass fingering in Ex. 2. In the C major scale (C Ionian), the notes would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. By lowering the “seven” you get C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and C. Go back and forth between Ionian and Mixolydian to get used to hearing the distinction between them.

Next up, the Dorian scale. When you have the Mixolydian down cold (C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and C), sing and play it — but this time, when you get to “three,” lower in by a half-step. You now have a C Dorian scale, which looks like Ex. 3 and consists of C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb, and C. Notice that you have to execute a small shift with your fretting hand when you play it on your bass, but it’s well worth the extra effort. This is the most commonly used scale for bass grooves. (More about that in a future column.) Work this scale going back and forth between Mixolydian and Dorian until you’re solid. Once you are, here comes Aeolian. 

The Aeolian scale is also called the natural minor scale, and you can hear what it sounds like by playing the Dorian and lowering the “six” by a half-step. By doing so, you turn the C Dorian scale (C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb, and C) into the C Aeolian scale (C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, and C). Take a look at Ex. 4 for the Aeolian scale’s fingering pattern.

You now have the patterns and the sounds for the four most common scales: Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, and Aeolian. Being able to identify them by ear is going to benefit your bass playing and musicianship tremendously. Concentrate on these four scales; play them, sing them, and identify them using ear-training apps and videos. Don’t go beyond these four until you have a solid handle on them. Once you do, it’s relatively easy to add other scales to the mix. Just so you know, scales are often referred to as modes. They’re the same thing, and for us musicians, the terms scale and mode are interchangeable. Just know that in real life it gets a little tricky…after all, you can’t “mode” a mountain.

Patrick Pfeiffer is a professional bassist, bass educator, clinician, composer and author, having published several classic bass books, among them Bass Guitar for Dummies, Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies, Improve Your Groove: The Ultimate Guide For Bassand Daily Grooves for Bass. Besides performing and recording, Pfeiffer teaches bass guitar worldwide and often conducts clinics alongside such bass luminaries as Will Lee, John Patitucci, Gerald Veasley, Michael Manring and many more. Pfeiffer’s most recent CD Soul of the City was sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. He holds a Master’s in Jazz from the New England Conservatory