"I drank piss last month and lived!" is a mnemonic device used by students of music theory, in order to remember the seven Modern Western Modes of music (themselves derived from similar but not identical modes coined in Ancient Greece).

Each mode corresponds to a specific set of seven pitches (eight if you include the octave above the tonic pitch)which form a musical scale in which songs can be played. Every mode exists for every key in western music, so a song could be in "F# Aeolian," meaning an Aeolian mode using the F# pitch as its tonic.

Every modern western mode can be heard easily by starting on any white key on a piano and going upward or downward on the next seven white keys, without involving any black keys. Depending on which pitch you use first, this will result in a specific mode, and the order of the modes in this mnemonic device is based on the order of possible starting positions.

The modes themselves are:

Ionian - Beginning and ending on C if only white keys are used, Ionian mode corresponds to the Major Scale of any key in which it is played. The order of Tones (whole steps) and semitones (half steps) is T-T-s-T-T-T-s .

Dorian - Beginning and ending on D if only white keys are used, Dorian mode nearly corresponds to the natural minor scale, except that its sixth interval is a major sixth above the tonic, instead of a minor sixth. The order of Tones and semitones is T-s-T-T-T-s-T.

Phrygian - Beginning and ending on E if only white keys are used, Phrygian mode nearly corresponds to the natural minor scale of any key in which it is played, except that its second interval is a minor second instead of a major second. The order of Tones and semitones is s-T-T-T-s-T-T .

Lydian - Beginning and ending on F if only white keys are used, Lydian mode is the only western mode which features an augmented fourth interval (also called the tritone) instead of a Perfect Fourth. Other than this difference, it is identical to the Major Scale. The order of Tones and semitones is T-T-T-s-T-T-s .

Mixolydian - Beginning and ending on G if only white keys are used, Mixolydian mode nearly corresponds to the Major Scale of any key in which it is played, except that its seventh interval is a minor seventh instead of a major seventh. The order of Tones and semitones is T-T-s-T-T-s-T .

Aeolian - Beginning and ending on A if only white keys are used, Aeolian mode corresponds to the natural minor scale of any key in which it is played. The order of Tones and semitones is T-s-T-T-s-T-T .

Locrian - Beginning and ending on B if only white keys are used, Locrian mode is the only western mode which features a diminished fifth interval instead of a Perfect Fifth, resulting in a very distinctive sound not heard in any of the other modes. The order of Tones and semitones is s-T-T-s-T-T-T .

Western modes do not account for microtones, quarter-tones, pentatonic scales, and other scale conventions found in Middle-Eastern, Celtic, African, East Asian, and South Asian musical paradigms. The Turkish Makam and Byzantine Echos, Arabic maqam, Persian Dastgah, Indian Raga, That, and Melakarta, and Javanese Pathet are all modal or mode-equivalent systems used widely in their corresponding regions, instead of western modes based around a western 12-semitonal scale.

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