modes are really just a quality or coloring; the opening of "Dancing Days" is in the fourth mode (Lydian if that's important); so is that latest Aerosmith single (name escapes me now); it's that augmented fourth that gives it the unmistakable color of the fourth mode; start messing with two and three tone chords without your basic I-IV-V progression; listen to Zappa "Black Napkins" or "Sheik Yerbouti Tango"; different modes are associated w/ folk music from different nationalities (this maybe a stereotype, but noone ever said that stereotypes can't be genuine); play your cmaj starting from the third or fourth or second scale tone; you'll hear the different qualities come out; it's just inspiration; theory is crap without inspiration; it's John Tesh and Andrew Lloyd Webber.