F Dorian on Guitar

Dorian is a minor scale with one note lifted: the 6th is major instead of minor, which turns "sad" into "cool". The notes of F Dorian are F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D, Eb. Its characteristic note is D — the natural 6th — the one note that gives this minor-type scale its colour.

It is the sound of "Oye Como Va" and most of Santana, of "So What" and modal jazz, of funk vamps that sit on one minor chord forever without getting boring. Minor, but hopeful — melancholy with its chin up.

F Dorian across the whole neck

Standard tuning, frets 0–12. The gold notes are the root (F); every colour marks an interval, the same palette the app uses.

Practice F Dorian over a drone →Free, in your browser. It listens through your mic and lights up what you play.

Over the drone, everything sounds like plain minor until you land the natural 6th — that one note is the whole Dorian flavour, so aim for it on purpose.

Formula and intervals

R - 2 - b3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - b7 — 7 notes. The flat 3rd makes it a minor-family scale.

Chords in F Dorian

These are the diatonic chords — the harmony built from only the notes above. Vamping between any of them keeps you inside the mode.

Degree	Chord	Quality
i	Fm	Minor
ii	Gm	Minor
III	Ab	Major
IV	Bb	Major
v	Cm	Minor
vi°	Ddim	Diminished
VII	Eb	Major

Same notes, different home

F Dorian contains exactly the same notes as Eb Major. Nothing about the notes changes — what changes is which one feels like home, and that changes everything about the sound.

Other modes on F