Important concept in the history of song. The mathematical relationships between musical pitches were worked out and defined by Pythagoras and others in 4th century Greece, leading to the birth of the standard musical scale. This means the notes they used then were pretty much the same as the notes we use now. The Greeks also developed the idea of music existing in different modes drawn from the standard scale of notes. This was a practical concept that became fully grown with early christian church music, and its Renaissance flowering. With a piano, an approximate idea of different modes is achieved by playing scales up an octave from different starting points, using white notes only. Because the intervals between those notes are not consistent, a different effect is produced depending on where you start. The eight modes available this way are the equivalent of the eight modes available in Gregorian chant. Major and minor are also described as different modes of the modern standard scales.
