Originally Posted by: light487modes are only for jazz??????????? (I removed a few ?'s :) haha) pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffft!

God only knows where they pulled that one from.. modes are just as important in EVERY style of music. It's not about know 7 different scales, one for each style of music.. it's about knowing your way around your instrument.. whether you are playing the harmonica, the guitar, piano or singing.. modes play a huge role in everything to do with music. Once the music is written, though it's not entirely set in stone, you don't have to worry any more about anything except for reading the notes off the sheet music. However, we are talking about improvisation here...

When I solo, I don't decide all of a sudden that I am going to play in a particular mode.. it just happens.. you find a note that sounds 'right' but it isn't the root note. That note is the root of the mode... You only need to know that it is "such and such" a mode so you can tell whoever it is you are playing with what you are doing.. or so that you can remember next time.. or even better.. so that you understand what you are doing and can then add it to your own personal style.

Every single bit of basic music theory is important to every single musician.. that's not the say that every single musician needs to know music theory.. I certainly didn't need it for the first 15 years.. but it really does help you understand what you are doing, how to repeat what you are doing, and how to "change it up". If all you ever do is learn the basic "intervals" stuff, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of people who don't know it and having been playing, on average, for the same amount of time as you.

Right On! Oh sorry, I guess they don't say that now days!