What exactly is the difference between playing in modes and the key a song is in?

Question

I understand what a key signature is, I understand what a major and minor scale is, pentatonic scales, and I see, on paper, that modes are basically just a diatonic scale starting different notes than the root note, with the ionic mode being the same as the diatonic major scale.

I’ve played guitar for 20 years, but I mostly play by ear and some guitar tabs. What I can’t figure out is when they talk about a lead guitar player applying different modes. Does it mean they are still using the same key, but the note they start on decide the mode? For example, if the song is in the key of C major, and the guitarist is using the mixolydian mode, is he playing with the first note of the mode as C? If so, I’d think everything would sound way off

Mamianka · Answer

i am a retired Theory teacher, and still active as a performer (in nonn Covid times . . .) and private instructor.  The simplest response - you can use the whole step/half step construction of ANY mode, starting on any pitch.  Looking at a piano keyboard, it is easiest to see the Dorian mode from any D to the next D up.  But if you wanted to play a Dorian mode starting on C - it would be C D Eb F G A Bb C.   Compared to the major scale, 3 and 5 are lowered/flatted - but compared to the natural form of the c minor scale (as the parallel minor of Eb major) - they is no Ab.  If you applied chords to this, your IV chord in C Dorian would be major - not minor, like c minor had as a iv chord - AND your v chord would be minor!  So it would be c - F - g.  You hear this a lot!  So try this is several keys - then move on to other modes.  Not all will work with chord progressions, since you are trying to take a music system 2000 years old, and fit it to modern times and ears. Some will sound better to our ears than others.  Make yourself some charts in a spreadsheet - working systematically we help you the best, and fastest.

What exactly is the difference between playing in modes and the key a song is in?

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