Modes A lot of people are confused by modes and scales in music. A lot of traditional music, especially Scottish and Irish is 'Modal' due to it's origins on instruments such as the Highland and Uillean pipes.
Modes are simply the name given to the pattern of intervals between each note in an octave.
Modes and Scales can be traced back to Greek origins, where different tribes evolved different scales. Each scale started on a different note and descended by characteristic intervals. In the middle ages, the church adopted these scales, made them ascending from a tonic note and renamed them modes.