Dorian mode

The mode built on the second degree of a major scale, which sounds like a minor scale with a raised sixth.

Dorian is the most used of the minor modes in rock and folk because that raised sixth note lifts the scale just enough to stop it sounding gloomy without making it major. It sits perfectly over the minor chord with a major fourth that appears in countless modal rock songs. Players who know the minor pentatonic can find Dorian by adding the natural sixth to their existing shape, which makes it one of the easiest new colours to learn.

Example: A song that vamps between two minor chords a whole step apart, with a bright sixth note in the melody, is in Dorian.

Dorian mode

See also