We’ve talked about why piano lessons are a great gift for your child. We’ve talked about the importance of practicing, how to get your child to practice, and how to get the most out of a practice session. You know that regular access to a piano for practice is key to making good progress.

But if you don’t already have a piano in your home, one of the biggest questions on the minds of new piano students — or their parents — is, “What kind of piano should I buy?”

First of all, realize that you don’t necessarily have to buy a piano right away. You may be able to rent a piano. Often a piano store is willing to rent an instrument, or at least arrange a rent-to-own deal.

Or, you may be able to work out regular access to a piano that someone else owns. Family member? Neighbor? Most pianos do not see constant use; schools and churches are just two organizations that may own pianos which are used only infrequently. If you ask, a school or your church may be willing to let your child practice on their pianos. At least, you may be able to work out such an arrangement long enough to be sure your child is serious about sticking with her piano lessons.

But let’s say you are committed to having an instrument in your home. What kind of piano should you buy?

The fact is, not only are acoustic pianos expensive, but they also take up a lot of room in your home. If you have enough money and clear space in your home, by all means purchase a baby grand piano. But most “starter pianos” are uprights. These can be pushed flush up against a wall and take up less floor space than baby grands.

Some piano teachers insist that their students practice on an acoustic piano; others are not so strict. Be sure and ask your family’s piano teacher if she has a preference — and if it’s truly a preference, or a rule.

Why would a piano teacher care? Well, as much progress as has been made in electronic or digital pianos, they still cannot fully reproduce the experience of playing on an acoustic model. The keyboard action, the sound quality, and the ability to use damper pedals are all stronger in acoustic pianos than in digital ones.

Yet these differences are unlikely to be noticeable to a beginner. And, the digital models have advantages of their own.

For one thing, price. A decent digital keyboard can be had for much less than a decent acoustic.

For another, the digital keyboard is much more portable than an acoustic piano. If the ability to take the keyboard with you to Grandma’s is important, then an acoustic piano will not serve your needs as well as a digital one.

And finally, the digital keyboard has… headphones. If you live in an apartment, or perhaps practicing must take place when one family member is asleep, this benefit is crucial. With headphones, the pianist can hear himself, but avoid disturbing others.

Eventually, most pianists discover that there is no real substitute for an acoustic piano. But that’s not to say that the digital keyboards can’t play a valuable role, especially for a beginner. Talk to your family’s piano teacher, and evaluate your family’s needs. Chances are, you can find an instrument out there that will work within your space, budget, and other constraints.

In my last post, I talked about when your child should start piano lessons. Now let’s talk about why.

Music education may seem like an expensive undertaking. The lessons, the music, the various accessories — metronomes and so forth. And for piano in particular — the instrument. No matter what kind of instrument your child takes up, from piccolo to tuba, the best models cost a lot. But you can usually pick up a decent student model for much less. A good acoustic piano, however, even if purchased used, can cost a couple thousand dollars right from the start.

Why should you go to this much expense? Because you’re really making an investment in your child. You’re helping her to build skills and abilities — even introducing her to a whole new way to enjoy life. And who can put a price tag on that?

Piano lessons will help your child…

(1) Gain confidence.

In meeting and mastering the challenges of piano lessons, your child will experience feelings of accomplishment in ways both large and small. From accurately copying a simple rhythm to learning a scale to performing for an audience, your child will learn that he can do it. He can overcome a challenge that seems hard at first. He is capable. He can learn and improve. He will take this sense of confidence with him wherever he goes in life. And it will serve him well.

(2) Gain a skill she can share.

When your child can play the piano, she can perform in things like a school talent show, a relative’s wedding, or a local nursing home. She can share the beauty of music with others. And this is a gift she can give to her family and associates for the rest of her life — because you gave her the gift of piano lessons when she was a child.

(3) Learn to accept guidance from a mentor.

For your child to succeed in any career, he will have to assess his own performance, realize he’s not perfect, seek expert guidance to improve — and actually put that guidance into practice. Dental school, law school, or skilled trades — it really doesn’t matter what your child ends up doing as an adult; the ability to take constructive feedback and learn from someone who has gone before him is crucial to success in any field. Piano lessons, and his piano teacher, will give him practice in this key life skill.

(4) Learn to break down a challenge into smaller parts.

During her piano lessons, your child will learn that success does not come overnight. Instead, it comes from overcoming countless small challenges over a period of years. As she moves from Book 1 to Book 2 and beyond, your child will realize that her new skills build on what she mastered earlier, and she can look forward to gaining even more skills in the years to come. This alternative to instant gratification will help her break down other life challenges into manageable parts, and will teach her persistence.

(5) Grow his brain in new ways.

Studies have shown that piano lessons help children learn analytical and memory skills — better than other types of lessons. Researchers believe that piano lessons encourage new connections to form in the child’s growing brain — and these new connections benefit the child in ways far beyond his piano skills alone.

Children who take piano lessons enhance their abilities to recognize patterns, to see how the parts relate to the whole, and to understand sequencing, or the order in which events take place. These are important foundational skills for math and other analytical subjects. And, studies have shown that children who take piano lessons tend to perform better on standardized tests.

So if your child wants piano lessons, encourage her. And when he needs to practice, remind him. The ability to make music is one of the most long-lasting gifts you can give your child.

Mozart started at age three. Liszt started at age seven. And while most prodigies have started earlier, it’s not unheard-of for professional musicians to have picked up their chosen instrument as late as age twelve.

When should your child start piano lessons? The answers are as varied as the children themselves.

It’s probably better to think about whether your child has achieved certain skills and developmental milestones, rather than to think in terms of age in years.

Here are some signs that your child may be ready to start piano lessons:

(1) Does he enjoy listening to music, dancing to music, and participating in making music?

If your child shows these signs of basic music appreciation, that will give him a good foundation on which to start piano lessons. Some parents push their children into music lessons just because it seems like the right thing to do, but if the child doesn’t enjoy it, then he will not stick with it. A good rule of thumb is to let the child show signs of wanting to start lessons, and let him show persistence in asking for at least several months. Chances are, if this happens, it was not a passing whim but a true interest.

(2) Does your child show the necessary strength and dexterity in her fingers?

Many piano teachers recommend waiting until children are six or seven years old before starting them on lessons, because by this age they are more likely to have the necessary fine motor skills. But if your three-year-old shows good dexterity in holding a crayon to color, she may also have enough dexterity to start piano lessons.

(3) Can your child sit still and concentrate on a challenging subject for at least 15 minutes?

Not a movie or a video game, but a puzzle or a board game or arts and crafts. If yes, then he may also be ready to sit still on the piano bench and focus on piano for that length of time. As for a preschooler piano lessons, 15 minutes is plenty for a lesson or for a practice session. For a child in elementary school, 30 minutes is the norm.

(4) Can your child count?

Counting and rhythm are extremely important in learning to play piano. The concepts of whole notes, eighth notes, time signatures, and so on are crucial for a student to master. A child should be able to count to at least 5 (for a preschooler) or even better, 10, in order to grasp these ideas during piano lessons.

(5) Can your child recognize the first few letters of the alphabet?

The musical notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G are integral to music and music education. Most piano lessons will introduce these right away. To succeed in piano lessons, a child’s mind needs to be ready to make several complex associations related to these letters: She must connect the spoken letter name with the visual (written) letter, then with a particular key on the piano keyboard and the sound it makes, and finally, with the musical symbol showing the note’s position on the musical staff. You can see that she’ll get off to a better start in piano lessons if she can already recognize the written letters.

If your child is really ready, giving her piano lessons may be one of the most long-lasting gifts she’ll ever receive. The joy of making music can last a lifetime. But if he’s not ready yet, pushing him too soon may cause him to quit in frustration. Be patient. Every child is different. If she doesn’t seem ready yet, ask again in a few months or a year.

The “right age” to start piano lessons? Whatever age your child shows all of these signs of readiness.

Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, born in 1873, was expected to have a career as a military officer, like his father before him. But in those days, a career as a military officer was considered the province of the aristocracy, or at least the wealthy. Before Sergei reached his teens, his father had squandered the family fortune through a series of poor decisions, and a military career was no longer in reach. Fortunately, the boy’s musical gifts had already made themselves known, giving him an alternate career path as a professional musician.

During his early teen years, young Sergei attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory — where he was by all accounts a terrible student. He made a habit of cutting classes and sliding by on his natural talent, which, while considerable, still needed training and practice to progress.

Later, Sergei Rachmaninoff went to Moscow to study there under a renowned teacher, Nikokai Zverev. Here Zverev managed to instill discipline into the young man. Here too, Rachmaninoff heard Tchaikovsky perform. This made a great impression on Rachmaninoff, and he idolized Tchaikovsky for the rest of his life.

Also in Moscow, at the age of 19, Rachmaninoff wrote his first opera, Aleko, for which he won a gold medal in a competition. He also wrote some of his early piano works, including his Prelude in C-Sharp minor.

Rachmaninoff spent much of his life touring as a concert pianist to support himself and his family, and was considered by many to be the best pianist of the 20th century. He was involved in some of the earliest efforts to record music, performing for the inventor of recording technology, Thomas Edison and his Edison Records company. Rachmaninoff later recorded for the RCA Victor company, and was also involved in recording on piano rolls for the Aeolian Company and American Piano Company. His surviving recordings are still acknowledged as classics.

Because he spent so much time touring, Rachmaninoff’s compositional output was irregular. At times he suffered from writer’s block. For instance, after the disastrous response to the premiere of his First Symphony, Rachmaninoff lost confidence and did not compose again for nearly three years. He only regained his confidence after psychological counseling.

Imagine if he had stopped composing then! The world would never have been graced with works such as Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, which was the first piece he produced after this dry spell. This is now considered one of the greatest classics of piano literature.

Another setback came about as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Rachmaninoff, his wife, and their two daughters fled Russia with little more than the clothes on their back and a handful of notebooks with the composer’s musical sketches. Indeed, they were lucky to escape with their lives.

For the next 25 years until his death in 1942, Rachmaninoff composed very few works. In fact, he composed very little until he managed to purchase some land on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. There he had built a summer home in 1932, which he called Villa Senar and which reminded him of his lost Russia. Here he began composing regularly again, producing well-known piano works such as Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and symphonic works such as Symphony No. 3 and Symphonic Dances. This last, produced in 1940, was Rachmaninoff’s final completed work.

A great pianist, resilient in adversity, and a brilliant composer, Rachmaninoff’s musical influence can still be felt today.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, born 1844, was one of a group of gifted young Russian composers known as “The Five,” who were dedicated to preserving Russian traditions in music. Not surprisingly, Rimsky-Korsakov had a lifelong fascination for bringing traditional folk tales and fairy tales to life in his music. Some of his well-known operatic and symphonic works include folk-tale-based Scheherezade and The Snow Maiden.

Rimsky-Korsakov was known for repeatedly revising earlier works, some of them more than once, in a quest for continual improvement. He welcomed guidance and insights into music-making wherever he could find them, whether from his friends in The Five or from the academic environment of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His musical influence can be seen directly in the work of some of his famous Russian students, such as Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev, and indirectly among Western composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

For a man who late in life completed an opera every 18 months for over a decade, it may seem odd that his family thought he was destined for a naval career. Indeed, in young adulthood Rimsky-Korsakov attended the naval academy, and worked as an officer for years, including a 3-year international cruise. Yet all this time he continued his musical studies privately. One teacher in particular was very encouraging about Nikolai’s prospects as a composer, and introduced him to a group of young composers who came to be known as The Five.

With the encouragement of his composer friends, in particular Balakirov, Rimsky-Korsakov began work on his first Symphony. However, he had trouble with the Adagio movement, and left on his 3-year naval cruise without finishing the Symphony. On coming into port in Britain, Rimsky-Korsakov was seized with the inspiration he needed to finish the slow movement; he mailed it off to Balakirov before his ship set sail again. His friend conducted the premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s first Symphony to a most receptive audience.

When he returned to Russia, Rimsky-Korsakov agreed to become roommates with another of The Five, Modest Mussorgsky. Thus began a deeply satisfying and productive period in which Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and the rest of The Five critiqued one another’s work, collaborated, and grew their skills as composers. Though he was still commissioned as a naval officer, Rimsky-Korsakov’s military duties only took him a couple of hours’ work per day, leaving much time to pursue his composing career.

In 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov was invited to take up a professorship at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He accepted eagerly, but freely admitted that as a self-taught musician himself, he lacked the background in music theory and music history that would make him a fit teacher. With his customary zeal for learning and self-improvement, Rimsky-Korsakov undertook to use the Conservatory’s resources to teach himself what he needed to stay at least one step ahead of his students.

At the conclusion of this period, Rimsky-Korsakov had become an enthusiastic convert to an appreciation of Western styles such as counterpoint and the sonata. This led to a minor break with others of The Five, who maintained their disdain for Western forms, and felt that Rimsky-Korsakov was “betraying” his Russian roots. Undaunted, Rimsky-Korsakov allowed his music to continue to evolve. Eventually, he found a balance between Russian themes and Western forms.

With his professorship, the young composer felt he was settled enough to propose marriage. He and Nadezhda Purgold were married in 1872. Nadezhda, a gifted musician herself, became Nikolai’s collaborator and encourager, playing a similar role to that played by Clara Schumann and Anna Magdalena Bach toward their composer husbands. The pair enjoyed a long and satisfying marriage, with several beloved children. One of their sons grew up to be a noted music historian, and wrote a multi-volume ston his father’s life and works.

Rimsky-Korsakov spent the next several decades happily and productively, despite several periods in which he was blocked compositionally. However, the end of his life was not so peaceful. In 1905, about 100 Conservatory students were expelled for taking part in the February Revolution. Rimsky-Korsakov sided with the students, and his latest operas were politically dissident in nature. In the end, some of his operas were banned altogether, while others were permitted performance only in modified format. He died in 1908, after a long struggle with the heart ailment angina, exacerbated by the stresses following the February Revolution incidents.

It may seem odd that a man who faithfully served as a naval officer for many years would side with dissident students. But it is perhaps of a piece with his own quest for continual self-improvement. Rimsky-Korsakov’s basic honesty and respect for Russian tradition would not allow him to remain silent when he saw ways in which his society could improve itself. He applied this same spirit of honesty and continual improvement to his musical works.

Born in 1840, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed some of the best-beloved and often-performed works in classical music. His ballet and orchestral works included The Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake, and the 1812 Overture. He also composed many influential piano works, including his First Piano Concerto. Yet Tchaikovsky led a life which often seemed at odds with his social surroundings.

As a child of the middle class, his parents provided young Pyotr with a legal education, intending him for a career in civil service. At age 14, while attending the School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg, Pyotr was shocked by news of the death of his mother from cholera. He wrote his first recorded composition, a waltz, to honor her memory.

During his legal studies, young Pyotr seems to have continued yearning for a musical rather than a legal career. For several years, Pyotr’s father Ilya paid for him to receive private piano lessons from a well-known teacher. However, when Ilya asked this teacher’s advice regarding a musical career for his son, the teacher is reported to have said that Pyotr did not show evidence of brilliance in either composition or piano performance. The father then insisted that Pyotr pursue the solid, if pedestrian, career that had been planned for him.

Obedient to his father’s wishes, Pyotr took his law degree and began his civil service career. Yet it lasted only a scant three years before he returned to music for good. He joined the newly-formed Saint Petersburg Conservatory and studied under Anton Rubenstein, who was impressed by his talent.

Even with the support of Rubenstein, however, Tchaikovsky found it challenging to fit in at the Conservatory. Rubenstein and the philosophy of the Conservatory was, in fact, musically quite conservative, dedicated to preserving what Rubenstein saw as the best of Western musical forms. Tchaikovsky, however, realized in composing his first major orchestral work, the Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Winter Daydreams, that he would have trouble fitting his own musical expressions into Western forms as strictly as Rubenstein would have preferred. And, despite their mutual respect, Rubenstein and Tchaikovsky clashed repeatedly over the acceptability of this work.

Yet by having studied at a Conservatory dedicated to preserving Western musical forms, Tchaikovsky also found himself clashing with The Five, a group of influential young Russian composers who preferred to turn away from Western traditions. The Five, including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Modeste Mussorgsky, wanted to produce a distinctly Russian style of music and, rejecting the teachings of the Conservatory, rejected Tchaikovsky’s works as well.

Too individualistic for the conservative tastes of Rubenstein, too conservative and Westernized for the progressive Russian nationalist tastes of The Five, Tchaikovsky still seemed something of an outcast even while pursuing his long-dreamt-of musical career. Eventually, he accepted a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory which was formed by Anton Rubenstein’s brother, Nikolai Rubenstein, and there he stayed for over a decade.

Here Tchaikovsky composed his First Piano Concerto and intended to dedicate it to Nikolai Rubenstein. However, even this caused conflict, as Nikolai Rubenstein’s early reaction to the work was one of rejection. But Tchaikovsky, though hurt and angered by this, was through with changing his works to suit others. He would be true to his own musical vision and not a note would be changed. Eventually the work was premiered by another pianist, Hans von Bulow. And, in the long run, Nikolai Rubenstein came to appreciate the work and later accepted it unchanged.

Tchaikovsky had a restless and turmoil-filled personal life as well. His first love married another man unexpectedly. He later married hastily and disastrously. While he and his wife Antonina lived together for only a few short months and never had any children, they remained legally married for the rest of his life.

Tchaikovsky then took to traveling all over Europe and Russia, never settling in one place for very long. He was helped in this lifestyle by the patronage of a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, who paid Tchaikovsky an annual stipend for many years that enabled him to resign from the Moscow Conservatory. She was also a source of deep and abiding friendship and emotional support as well, though by her own preference they never met in person. They exchanged more than a thousand letters over the years.

It was through his incessant travels that Tchaikovsky became a bridge between the music of Russia and of the West. Although Anton Rubenstein and others had brought Western forms to Russia, the reverse had not been true — until Tchaikovsky took his music to the West. His works were influential in the development of Western forms thereafter, particularly ballet. But any bridge, while highly valued, is always suspended between worlds — never fully a part of either side. Tchaikovsky, the man who never seemed to fit in anywhere, eventually spread his musical influence everywhere.

Question: What is an orchestra? What instruments are found in it?
Answer: The modern symphony orchestra is a fairly large ensemble of about 100 performers.

The primary instrument family contained in an orchestra is the String family: Violins, Violas, Cellos, and Basses. The instrumentation of the modern orchestra includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments as well. Keyboard instruments such as the piano or celesta are not a regular part of the orchestra, but some works call for them. In these cases, they are typically considered part of the percussion section.

Question: Can you have an orchestra without strings?
Answer: A large ensemble containing brass, woodwind, and percussion, but not strings, is called a band or wind ensemble — not an orchestra.

Question: Are there different kinds of orchestras? What’s the difference?
Answer: A large ensemble containing only strings is called (logically enough) a string orchestra. There are also symphony orchestras, philharmonic orchestras, chamber orchestras, and studio orchestras.

Question: Philharmonic? Symphony? Do these mean anything different?
Answer: There is not a lot of practical difference between philharmonic and symphony orchestras. These designations typically serve to differentiate between two orchestras which call the same city their home (i.e., London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras).

Question: What’s a chamber orchestra?
Answer: A chamber orchestra is a smaller ensemble, containing 30 to 50 performers. This structure dates back to Mozart’s day, and some purists prefer to hear music of that period performed by chamber orchestras; they consider it more authentic.

Question: And a studio orchestra? What’s that?
Answer: There are two different definitions of a studio orchestra.

The first type of studio orchestra is an orchestra employed by a movie or television studio. This ensemble does not give public performances, but rather, provides music for movie or TV soundtracks.

The other meaning of studio orchestra is a large jazz ensemble of 15 – 20 players or more, or a combination of a jazz ensemble and orchestra. This is sometimes called a big band, in comparison to smaller jazz ensembles such as trios or quintets. (The big band is actually smaller than a typical symphonic wind ensemble or marching band.)

Question: Orchestras don’t normally use keyboards, so why should I care?
Answer: While it’s true that keyboards are used only occasionally within the ensemble, a keyboard artist should still become familiar with the orchestra. There are occasions when the keyboard is vital to an orchestral work. For example, when Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from The Nutcracker Suite is played, nothing but the celesta — a keyboard instrument — will do.

Moreover, it will help your understanding of the piano works of famous composers such as Beethoven and Mozart if you have an appreciation for the wide range of other musical works they produced.

Besides, some of the most famous works in Western music are piano concerti (that’s the fancy way of saying the plural of “concerto”). A concerto is a challenging solo work accompanied by a full orchestra. Only those who have mastered an instrument can attempt to perform a concerto in concert. All the great Baroque, Classical, and Romantic composers wrote concerti for piano and orchestra. Mozart often performed his own piano concerti while simultaneously conducting the orchestra which accompanied him! (As if it weren’t challenging enough simply to perform the piano solo part!)

As a student of the keyboard, you should familiarize yourself with these great works, too. And that means getting a good basic understanding of the orchestra itself. Who knows? Maybe someday you’ll be the piano soloist performing one of these great works!

You have probably heard a celesta, even if you haven’t heard of it. It is often used to give a “celestial” or magical texture to a musical work. One recent example is in John Williams’ musical scores for the Harry Potter movies, in which the theme for Hedwig (Harry’s magical owl) features the celesta.

The celesta (pronounced CHEH-LESS-TAH), or celeste (CHEH-LEST), is played using a keyboard and resembles a small upright piano. However, the celesta is quite different from a piano in terms of how its sound is produced.

Invented in the late 1800’s, the celesta is classed as a “concussive ideophone.” An ideophone is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by the instrument itself vibrating, rather than a string (as in the piano) or membrane (as in a drum). Familiar ideophones include, to take just a few examples, the musical triangle, the maraca, and the marimba.

An early version of the celesta produced its sound using struck tuning forks, but the quality of this sound proved too subtle for use within an orchestral work. It was too easily drowned out by the rest of the orchestra. Modern celestas use a series of tuned metal plates, similar to those of a xylophone or glockenspiel, which are struck by hammers when the player presses the appropriate keys.

Celestas can be obtained in three-octave, four-octave, and five-octave versions. The celesta is a transposing instrument, meaning that the sound produced is, in this case, one octave higher than the note written in the score. The instrument can be readily played by a pianist, since the method of playing uses the same keyboard.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was the first major composer to score orchestral works for the celesta after its development. And the “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite is still among the most famous works to use the instrument. Another relatively famous work which features the celesta is the movement “Neptune, the Mystic,” from Gustav Holst’s The Planets, which premiered in 1918. In the 1930’s, Bela Bartok wrote another prominent work featuring the celesta, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

Many other artists in a variety of genres have used the instrument since Tchaikovsky’s day. A surprising number of jazz, rock, and pop musicians have used the celesta to give a unique tone to their works, from Fats Waller to Frank Sinatra to, more recently, the 10,000 Maniacs.

The celesta is a very specialized keyboard instrument, used only when a composer is after an ethereal, magical sound. But when that sound is called for, nothing else will do.

Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian… What are modes, anyway? And how are they related to the major and minor scales you already know?

Musical modes are simply different ways of ordering the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. They are created by different sequences of half steps and whole steps.

You probably already know that half steps (or minor seconds) represent the closest interval between two notes. And naturally, as the name implies, a whole step (or major second) represents two half steps. For example, from C to C-sharp is one half step, or minor second. From C-sharp to D is another. Put the two together, and from C to D is one whole step, or major second.

The simplest way to think about modes is to consider the C Major scale. (This way, we don’t have to worry about accidentals.)

Starting on C and going up to the next C using just the white keys, the C Major scale that you’re familiar with is also known as the Ionian mode. The sequence of whole steps and half steps is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H, where W = “Whole step” and H = “Half step.”

Now, take those same white keys, and start on D instead of C. Go up to the next D. This is the Dorian mode. It uses the pattern: W-H-W-W-W-H-W.

And so on. The mode that goes from E to E (or starts on the third of the C Major scale) is the Phrygian, with the sequence: H-W-W-W-H-W-W.

The mode that goes from A to A (starting on the sixth of the C Major scale) is the Aeolian, otherwise known as the A Minor scale. It has a sequence of: W-H-W-W-W-H-W.

Here is a list of all the modes and the sequence of whole notes and half notes that make them up:

Ionian (Major scale): W-W-H-W-W-W-H
Dorian: W-H-W-W-W-H-W
Phrygian: H-W-W-W-H-W-W
Lydian: W-W-W-H-W-W-H
Mixolydian: W-W-H-W-W-H-W
Aeolian (Minor scale): W-H-W-W-H-W-W
Locrian: H-W-W-H-W-W-W

As you can imagine, each of these modes has quite a unique sound to it, and conveys a unique mood. Just think about the difference between the C Major scale (Ionian mode) and the A Minor scale (Aeolian mode). They both use the same keys. But put the whole and half steps together in a different way, and an entirely different feeling is conveyed.

Major Modes: Ionian (the Major scale), Lydian, and Mixolydian are considered “Major” modes. In other words, the mood they evoke is generally a happy and forthright one.

Minor Modes: Aolian (the Minor scale), Dorian, and Phrygian are considered “Minor” modes. The mood they evoke is a wistful, sad, contemplative one.

The Locrian mode is in a class by itself, known as a Diminished Mode. It is the only mode whose fifth is not perfect. It is almost never used in composition, since it has a very odd and unsettling sound.

Most of us can tell whether a given tune is in a major or a minor key — that is, whether it is in Ionian or Aolian mode. However, you may be surprised to learn that Dorian and Mixolydian modes are also used with some regularity. They can be found in folk tunes (particularly those of Irish origin), rock, jazz, and blues. Lydian is used more rarely, and Locrian is almost never used at all.

Phrygian mode is used in flamenco music and other Spanish music — and in Arab music. This is perhaps not just a coincidence but an artifact of history: In the 700’s, the Moors (we would call them Arabian peoples today) invaded the Iberian peninsula (now Spain) — and left their mark on the culture they found there.

Scales are modes, not the other way around. And the familiar major and minor keys are just the beginning. Next time you practice your scales, remember — you’re not just practicing the major scale, you’re also practicing the Ionian mode!