What is the point of the different modes? I have looked at this puzzle for years and never really know why you have to call it something different just because you are starting the scale at a different point.. it's still the same scale... just that you started on the 3rd note of the scale (ie. Phrygian).. Mixolydian.. 5th note.. but still the same scale..

The root note is always going to sound like, to me at least, it is completing or starting the scale "properly". The scale itself is the defining thing for me.. whether I add a sharp or flat there and there, within the major scale.

Are modes just a complex way of saying: It's this scale but you start on the nth note.

???