Modes for Video Game Music: Two Ways to Actually Use Them
A mode is what you get when you take a scale you already know, then treat a different note like home. Same notes, different gravity.
For video game music, the two most useful ways to think about modes are relative (stay in the C major scale, start on a different degree) and parallel (keep C as home, swap in the notes that define each mode).
Lean on four modes most of the time: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. Aeolian is just natural minor, Ionian is just major, and Locrian is rarely worth the trouble.
Watch: Modes for Video Game Music
The full lesson on YouTube, with every example played on camera.
Roughly 20 minutes. Visual piano demonstrations of every mode covered below.
What is a mode?
Take a C major scale. You already know it. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. When the C feels like home and everything else feels like a note wanting to get back to C, that’s a C major scale in action. Music theory has a different name for that specific feeling: C Ionian. Same notes. Same scale. Fancier label.
A mode shows up the moment you keep those same seven notes but pick a different note to treat like home. The notes did not move. Your ear moved. That shift is the whole trick.
Here’s the quick version with home tones in bold and adventure tones in plain text:
| Mode | Start on | Home tones | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ionian | C | C, E, G | Major scale |
| Dorian | D | D, F, A | Minor with a bright 6 |
| Phrygian | E | E, G, B | Minor with a flat 2 bite |
| Lydian | F | F, A, C | Major with a raised 4 |
| Mixolydian | G | G, B, D | Major with a flat 7 |
| Aeolian | A | A, C, E | Natural minor |
| Locrian | B | B, D, F | Rare. A lot of baked-in dissonance. |
Home tones are the notes you land on. Adventure tones are the notes you pass through. That framing is what turns “list of notes” into “usable sound.”
Relative modes: the standard explanation
Everyone on YouTube teaches the relative mode approach first. Songwriters, producers, composers, all the same starting point. It’s the standard explanation because it’s the simplest way in.
Stay inside the C major scale. Start on D and prioritize D. You are now in D Dorian. Start on E and prioritize E. You are in E Phrygian. Move the starting point, move the mode. The notes never change.
This is useful the moment you already know your way around one major scale. If you know C major, you already know seven modes. You just have to commit to a different home tone.
Modes take an established scale and prioritize different notes. That’s the whole idea.
The four modes that matter most for game music
Ionian is already major. Aeolian is already natural minor. You know those. Locrian has a flat 2, flat 3, flat 5, flat 6, and flat 7 stacked together, which is a lot of baked-in dissonance for a video game cue to carry. That leaves four modes worth practicing:
- D Dorian. Natural minor scale up to scale degree six. The six is natural instead of flat, which gives it that bright, hopeful color inside a minor world. Great for determined dungeon themes.
- E Phrygian. Half step from scale degree one to two. That half step is the signature. Flamenco, cursed temples, and “something is wrong in this forest” moments all live here.
- F Lydian. Major scale with a raised fourth. You’d expect a B flat; you get B natural. Dreamy, wide, floating. Skyboxes and hopeful splash screens love this mode.
- G Mixolydian. Major scale with a flat seven. F natural where you expect F sharp. Village themes, tavern music, anything earthy and folkish.
How to make the mode actually sound like the mode
This is where most beginners lose the thread. You can play every note of D Dorian and still sound like you are sitting in C major. The ear defaults to the tonic it recognizes.
Three moves fix that:
- Nail the home note in the bass. If it’s D Dorian, the bass sits on D. Do not wander. A pedal-tone bass is the single fastest way to force the listener’s ear onto the new home.
- Write your melody around the home tones. Start on the home tone. End phrases on the home tone. Resolve to one of the three home tones for that mode.
- Include the difference maker note. This is the note that separates the mode from the nearest major or minor scale.
Here’s the difference maker for each of the four priority modes:
| Mode | Difference maker | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| D Dorian | Scale degree 6 (B natural, not B flat) | Land on B natural at least once per phrase. |
| E Phrygian | Scale degree 2 (F natural, not F sharp) | Hit F immediately after E for the signature half step. |
| F Lydian | Scale degree 4 (B natural, not B flat) | Let the melody rise through B natural on the way to C. |
| G Mixolydian | Scale degree 7 (F natural, not F sharp) | Drop the F natural under a held G to lock the mode in. |
Skip the difference maker and your G Mixolydian sketch turns into “G major with some extra notes.” The ear needs that one note to hear the mode.
Parallel modes: the other way to think about it
The relative approach stays inside one major scale and rotates home. The parallel approach keeps home fixed and swaps in the notes that define each mode. Different sounds, same root.
Starting from C every time:
| C mode | Notes | Where it points |
|---|---|---|
| C Ionian | C D E F G A B | Classic major. |
| C Dorian | C D E♭ F G A B♭ | Minor with a bright 6. |
| C Phrygian | C D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭ | Flat 2 tension. |
| C Lydian | C D E F♯ G A B | Raised 4 lift. |
| C Mixolydian | C D E F G A B♭ | Major with a flat 7. |
| C Aeolian | C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ | Natural minor. |
| C Locrian | C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ | All the flats. Rare. |
The parallel view is what you reach for when you already know the scene sits in C and you just want to re-color the music. Dan prefers this angle for composition because it makes swapping modes inside a cue feel like costume changes on the same character.
Mode mixture for video game music
Mode mixture is when you borrow notes (or chords) from one parallel mode into another. Start in C Dorian, drift into C Phrygian for a dark bridge, come back to C Aeolian for the resolution. Same root the whole time. The ear hears three emotional rooms inside one house.
Practical recipe for a short cue:
- Lock the root. C is home for the whole piece.
- Write eight bars in C Dorian. Use the chords you’d expect in B flat major starting on C: C minor, D minor, E flat major, F major, G minor, A diminished, B flat major.
- Shift to eight bars of C Phrygian. Flat the 2, flat the 6, keep C as home. Notice how the cue instantly feels more cursed.
- Resolve into C Aeolian (natural minor) for the last four bars. Normal minor gravity comes back.
That’s a full three-section game cue built entirely from parallel modes. No key change. Same root, new color each section.
Bonus: modes of harmonic and melodic minor
Most lessons stop at the seven modes of major. That’s a mistake for game music because harmonic and melodic minor also have their own modes, and several of them are gold for boss themes, tension cues, and that “this area is not safe” feeling.
A few favorites from the C harmonic minor set:
- Start on scale degree 2 of C harmonic minor. Opens like Phrygian, but the seventh is raised. That raised seven gives you an unexpected lift inside an otherwise dark mode.
- Start on E flat (scale degree 3). Major scale with a sharp 5. Sounds heroic and slightly drunk at the same time.
- Start on F (scale degree 4). Minor at the bottom, raised four in the middle, flat seven at the top. Reads as a sharp, uneasy energy.
- Start on G (scale degree 5). You get a one, flat two, major three, which is a stacked tension that resolves with real weight.
The same approach works on melodic minor and on pentatonic (major and minor pentatonic are already modes of each other). If you want sound palettes that do not already live in every other game on the shelf, this is the shelf to pull from.
Your assignment
Short sketches. Thirty seconds each. Do not write a full piece. That is not the goal.
- Lay down a bass that plays D. Write a melody using all the C major scale notes, emphasizing D, F, and A. Hit B natural at least once. That’s D Dorian.
- Same idea, bass on E, emphasize E, G, B, and include F natural. That’s E Phrygian.
- Bass on F, emphasize F, A, C, include B natural on the way up. That’s F Lydian.
- Bass on G, emphasize G, B, D, include F natural. That’s G Mixolydian.
- Now do the parallel version: keep the root at C for all four sketches and swap in Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian notes.
Short sketches. Short sketches. Short sketches. The point is to teach your ear the shape of the mode, not to write an OST this week.
In Dan’s own words
“A mode is when we take an established scale and then we use those same notes prioritizing different ones.”
— Dan Spencer, Video Game Music Composer
“You’ve got to include the difference maker notes from the mode into your melody or into the chords underneath your melody to give it the feeling of the mode.”
— Dan Spencer, Video Game Music Composer
“We learn scales, we learn modes, we use both of them, and then we forget about all of it. The reason why you want to use modes is to give your brain those new patterns to come up with stuff.”
— Dan Spencer, Video Game Music Composer
Want this in a full training path?
Modes are one slice of the writing toolkit Dan teaches inside the Gamer Music Creator Guild. The 4M Video Game Music Composition Protocol (Make, Mix, Master, Market) walks you from a blank DAW all the way to released tracks on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music, with live coaching every step. The modes you just practiced show up in M1 (Make). If you want the full stack, applications are open.
Coaching, community, and the 4M Protocol curriculum. Release real video game music on a predictable timeline.
Frequently asked questions
What is a mode in music, in plain English?
A mode is a scale you already know, played as if a different note is home. Same notes, different gravity. Play the notes of C major but treat D as home, and you are in D Dorian. That shift of home tone is the whole idea of a mode.
How many modes are there?
Seven in the standard set that comes from the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian. Ionian is just major. Aeolian is just natural minor. Locrian is rarely used. Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian are the four you actually reach for in video game music.
What is the difference between relative and parallel modes?
Relative modes share the same notes but start on different degrees. D Dorian and C Ionian use the same seven notes; only the home tone changes. Parallel modes share the same home tone but swap in different notes. C Dorian and C Ionian both sit on C, but Dorian has E flat and B flat. Relative is easiest to learn. Parallel is easier to compose with inside one cue.
Why does my melody sound like major even when I am supposed to be in a mode?
Because the ear defaults to the major-scale home it recognizes. Fix it by anchoring the bass on the mode’s home tone, resolving phrases to the mode’s home tones, and including the difference maker note that separates the mode from plain major or minor.
Which mode sounds best for dark or tense game music?
Phrygian. The half step from scale degree one to two is the signature sound of cursed forests, flamenco-tinged villains, and ominous ambient cues. For a slightly less aggressive dark mood, try Dorian. Dorian reads as minor with a hopeful sixth.
Can I mix modes inside one piece of video game music?
Yes, and you should. It’s called mode mixture. Keep the root note constant and swap in notes or chords from parallel modes to recolor sections of the cue. Same home, new room.