When I was 17 or 18, I decided to figure out what “modes” were.
Many of the different explanations made sense to me, but one
comment was puzzling: “modes are rarely used in their pure
form.” Now, after twenty years as a professional guitarist, I
have a much clearer understanding of what the “modes” really are
and of their function. In this issue let’s focus on the second
of the seven basic modes, aka the Dorian mode. There are two
approaches to truly understanding any mode: the medieval and the
modern. The former focuses on taking the Ionian/major scale and
making the second tone the root or home tone. The latter is a
microwave version in which you simply alter certain tones of the
Ionian/major scale to achieve the Dorian. The medieval approach
gives us a more complete understanding of how Dorian really
works, while the modern approach gives us a quicker way to
relate to this mode. Using the traditional or medieval idea, we
take the major scale and make the second tone the root; this
gives us the scale sequen