03 / scales + modes
GRIMOIRE
Find the notes. Change the center. Explore the neck.
Build your scale
Parallel keeps your chosen tonic and changes the interval pattern. Relative starts each mode on a different degree of the parent scale, preserving its pitch classes.
Set each string’s actual open pitch and octave, low string to high string. Re-entrant tunings are allowed; pitches are never automatically rearranged.
Mode I
C Ionian
Degrees /
Semitones from tonic /
Keyboard map
Yellow marks the tonic. Other scale tones are marked and labeled. Octave equivalents share a pitch class.
Fretboard map
This is a note map, not a prescribed fingering or sweep-picking pattern. Choose a compact fret window, connect nearby notes, and adjust fingerings to your hand and technique.
Every mode in this family
| Mode | Tonic | Degree formula | Notes |
|---|
Practice with a center
Play or hold the selected tonic while exploring the notes. A relative mode shares notes with its parent, but a tonic drone makes the changed center easier to hear. Try a short phrase, land on the tonic, then compare a parallel mode.
For guitar, start with four or five frets and one octave. A full note map shows available pitches; it cannot guarantee an ergonomic path or a picking technique.
Read the spelling
Heptatonic scales use one letter per degree. C♯ major therefore contains E♯ and B♯. Symmetric and chromatic collections may use repeated letters; exact formulas explain the choice. Less common names and aliases vary, so numbered rotations are used where a label is ambiguous.
Audio and diagrams use 12-tone equal temperament at A4 = 440 Hz. Traditional tuning, microtones, bends and musical context can go beyond this map.