Open Studio is the jazz online mecca! That's where I found out about Mr. Siskind.

 

Despite both modes sharing the same notes, they are not the same, and they do not sound the same. The same applies to C Ionian and G Mixolydian from your initial post. C Ionian ("C Major") sound got very popular, but G Mixolydian sound didn't. That's the whole story.

The best advice I can give you to help you wrap your head around this is to disregard the names of the notes and look at the intervals instead.

C Ionian: C D E F G A B / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
G Mixolydian: G A B C D E F / 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

A dog and god share the same letters, but are not the same thing too.

 

C major is the whole scale and G Mixolydian is a mode there is seven modes, Mixolydian is one of them.

Notes used for C major = C, D, E, F, G, A, B
Notes used for G Mixolydian = G, A, B, C, D, E, F

As you can see the root notes are different even though it uses all the same keys it just starts on a different root note. The main difference is also that there is a lowered seventh so instead of f there is an Fb chord.

Sorry instead of F# its F

 

Last edited: Mar 23, 2025