1. Ionian Mode
2. Dorian Mode
3. Phrygian Mode
4. Lydian Mode (Rondo)
5. Mixolydian Mode
6. Aeolian Mode
7. Locrian Mode

The collection Seven Modal Pieces was composed in the spring of 2004, while John Courter was serving as a Carillon Scholar at Historic Bok Sanctuary in Lake Wales, Florida. The work is dedicated to Bok Tower carillonneurs Milford Myhre and William De Turk. The first complete performance in America was given by De Turk at the 2007 GCNA Congress at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. The composer had performed the complete set at the 2006 World Carillon Federation Congress in Gdansk, Poland.

Seven Modal Pieces is not generally intended to be played as a complete suite. One may choose three or four pieces in any order with contrasting moods and tempi. The modes are types of scales with various arrangements of whole-steps and half-steps. The modes used here are not strictly the liturgical modes of medieval chant nor the ancient Greek modes, although some of them are found to be identical. The Ionian and Aeolian modes correspond to our major and natural minor scales, respectively. The Lydian mode is like a major scale with a raised 4th scale degree, while the Mixolydian is like a major scale with a lowered 7th. The modes here are most easily understood as using only the white notes of the piano. The table given on the inside back cover indicates the notes of each mode. The Locrian mode is considered a 'theoretical' mode, with practically no pieces composed in it. It was considered by Glareanus and others to be unsuitable. It is unstable because its tonic triad is a diminished chord.

Although the modes can be transposed to any key (retaining their arrangement of tones and semitones), Courter has chosen to use them in their untransposed form, with one exception. The first piece uses the Ionian mode transposed to "G" for the middle section.

Seven Modal Pieces is perfectly suited to meantone carillons as well as modern ones.

—John Courter