Originally Posted by: JarsewHello,

I understand the importance of knowing what key your in and what not. But going further into it such as Modes? Ick, i cant stand the concept of Modes. I am in the Key of C and have my root note be E. So what good does it do to call it E Phygrian? Why name it? What difference did it make? Supposedly (as I have read) a lot of Irish/Celtic/folk songs are written in Dorian? Well, so what? Does that change anything? I grantee half of those Irish guys didnt know what Dorian was and were writing in it, they simply just liked the sound! It fit their emotion at the time, and thats all there is to it.

Views?

Your quote above isn't a good example of use of modes since you described the same scale just starting at a different place(C major and C E Phrygian) since E is the 3rd degree of the major scale.

Take the key of C from the major scale(also known as Ionian)and make that the root note for the Phrygian mode(C Phrygian) - now you have a completely different sound that will work well with key of C. Phrygian is spanish sounding mode. What a mode does is change the relationship of the notes in the scale, for example, a major scale(Ionian) and minor scale(Aeoleon) have different intervals between notes of the scal, which give them their unique sound( a C major scale sounds alot different than a C minor scale)

The best lesson on modes I have ever come accross comes from here(This guy is very well known in Europe and on Youtube). Watch this youtube video and I think you will have a better understanding of the importance of modes(2 parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKbPIGnqt80&playnext_from=TL&videos=jRti7fHmcwE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uhN5h1o7ww&feature=channel

This should give you a good foundation of modes - it did for me.