TheDirt yeah you hit the nail right on the head, modes make it easier to think about switching keys, but if all you do is stay in the same key then modes are pointless (for the most part) but see my music teacher had my class do a composition project but we could only use the notes of c major (not this is my 7th grade class not a class at Berklee) and i don't really like major sounding music for the most part so i used E phrygian and got a completely different sound than anyone else (partly because they didn't know what they were doing) but still i used E as the tonal center not C. also look into classical music, like bach or Matteo Carcassi which his preludes i'll use as an example it starts in Em (e,f#,g,a,b,c,d,e) and then shifts into G major (g,a,b,c,d,e,f#,g) while the notes are the same the tonal center chages and so does the mood. the point is being the same as but different also like if you use a lot of 7th chords mixolydian sounds great over them because if you're in E mixolydian the E7 chord has e,g#,b
and e mixolydian is spelled (e,f#,g#,a,b,c#,d,e) so instead of saying i'm in a major and may progression has a lot of E7 chords it's more fitting and easier to think in e mixolydian instead of A major although they have the same notes, i hope i didn't drag this out too long.



[Edited by shredisnotdead on 07-15-2002 at 08:01 PM]