We are generally taught to practice scales starting and ending on the root note. This gives us a sense of the tonal centre and gets us used to playing with the scale. When we use a scale in a piece of music to create a solo or melody, things are different, we don't often play each note sequentially. Likewise we don't start and end every phrase on the root note. Sometimes we even play phrases that don't include the root note. The result is something that, on the surface, appears to be a random selection and order of notes taken from the scale, with musical phrases that don't need to contain all seven notes from the scale within each phrase.

If this is the case then how can a D Dorian be anything different from a C Ionian, F Lydian or any other mode belonging to the same major scale? This is where confusion rears it's ugly head and the short answer is ... it depends on what's dominating the tonal centre. In most cases this will be the underlying chord progression, the lead melody or both.

Something that needs to be understood is if the underlying chord progression is pulling our ears towards a common major key then this is very likely going to dominate the melody whether we like it or not. In other words, a typical I-IV-V chord progression in the key of C major is hard to interpret as anything else whether we like it or not, it just sounds like C major and that's that. It's how our ears perceive it. If we play any of the C major modes over the top, it's still going to sound like C major because our ears will pull us towards making note choices that relate to the feel of the music. If we structure our melody or lead solo to "battle" against it then it will either sound wrong or simply make little impact. The chord progression will still be likely to dominate what we want (or expect) to hear in most cases.

This subject could get endlessly bogged down with theory trying to explain the multitude of things that affect the tonal centre or key of a piece of music. The bottom line is if the chord progression supports the mode then our ears will generally do the rest just by playing around with the scale, you'll find yourself naturally placing the emphasis on the notes that matter most. So for instance, if you are playing a D Dorian scale pattern and the underlying chord progression has a D Dorian or D minor flavour, then it should naturally sound like D Dorian. If you try to play the D Dorian scale over a chord progression that's dominated by C major then it will just sound like C major.

There are various ways to create chord progressions that support the mode. One common method is to create a two chord vamp using the four and five chords of the relative major (Ionian) key over the root of the mode. So for example, to create a D Dorian chord progression, first we look at it's relative major scale (C major) and take the IV and V chords from that. In this case it will be F and G major. We can now play those two chords over a D root which equates to F/D and G/D. Note that an F major chord with a D bass shares the same notes as a Dmin7 chord and the G major chord already has the D note so this could also be viewed as Dm7 - G.

We can use the same idea for all the modes. To create an E phrygian progression we do the same thing. C major is the relative major of E phrygian so we take the same IV and V chords but play them over an E bass. This gives us F/E and G/E ... Note, G major over an E bass shares the same notes as an Emin7 so it would make sense to use this as the first chord in the sequence, I.e. Emin7 - F/E or Emin7 - Fmaj7

If we wanted E Dorian, we find it's relative major which is D major. The IV and V chords of D major are G and A so we would use G/E and A/E or Emin7 - A/E.

There are many ways to create various chord progressions for the modes, the above examples are enough to get you going and get to grips with the most important concept of them, modes are not just about the scale unless the scale itself is played in isolation with no backing. The rest of the music also needs to support the characteristics of the mode otherwise the most dominating part of the music will simply dominate the mood. I'll reiterate once more as this is such a confusing topic.

Take a look at the chords in the key of C major relative to the modal positions.

• I - C major -- Ionian
• Ii - D minor -- Dorian
• Iii - E minor -- Phrygian
• IV - F major -- Lydian
• V - G major -- Mixolydian
• Vi - A minor -- Aeolian
• Vii - B dim -- Locrian

Each of those chords should match the basic characteristics of the modes. In other words, Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian all have a major flavour. Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian all have a minor flavour. Locrian has a diminished flavour and this makes it a bit unstable sounding which is why it isn't used as often.

Using that as a basic guide you should realise that if you want to use an E Phrygian scale then the underlying music should have an E minor feel to it. All of the chords belonging to C major also belong to all of the C major modes. This is why chord choice is important. The chord progression C, F and G create a strong sense of C major tonality so it's only going to work well with the C Ionian mode. Even though those same chords also belong to E Phrygian, there is nothing about it that sounds like E minor.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record now so I'll leave it there. Hopefully this has shed some light on the topic. There's nothing like experience to get to grips with everything so get practicing!.