it's time for me to sit down and start learning modes in music, in a more organized and serious way. i had been knowing them exsist for years and only knew them by starting the major scale from different positions (do-re-me-...-do, re-me-fa-...-re, etc.), which is not very useful at all. The motivation came from after watching alain caron's clinic last week, so i'm here trying to work out a schedule and exersises to get to know these modes better based on the things i remembered and understanded from the clinic.

why learn modes?
it's like speaking a language. in order to be expressive when you speak, you will have to know what you are talking about by learning grammar, vocabulary, and even spelling. for sure there are alot of things that you can learn in the daily life by remembering someone says what, but wouldn't it be better if we can break these lines down, analyze them and hopefully came up with our own words with the same approach. i'm not against copying other players' lines and do that all the time, i gained knowledge still but it was slow and uneffective. after doing this for years, i think it's time for some changes.

what are modes?
modes are just scales, there are 7 modes(different scales) that uses all natural notes(all the white keys on piano, in the key of C). people refer them as playing C major scale start from different note(C-C, D-D, etc. from root to octave). in fact, they are different scales with different sound quality and note relationships. i've made up a chart with the 7 modes with natural notes(they are plenty of other mode/scales out there) that i can work on, my approach is to learn the intervals and their tonal quality.

the easier to get the hands on these modes would be applying them into notes in C major scale, they would be:

C-ionian
D-dorian
E-phrygian
F-lydian
G-mixolydian
A-Aeolian
B-locrian

these scales use natural notes only, and they do sounded like playing C major scale starting on different position. my exercise would be play these scales, think intervals and name them out before play the note. i believe most instrumentlists are quiet familar with how the major scale sounded like, but how about the notes between the major scale? i can only tell 2(#5[b6] and b7, in the relative way), so let's say in a D Dorian scale, instead of thinking re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do-re, i would think 1-2-b3-4-5-6-b7-1 then get used to the b3 and b7 sounds, also do a comparison of each note with the root note. same rule applies to all 7 modes.

last, i'm totally a noob to these stuffs, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at my name (4 letters end with with 2 E) at fat-cow.net