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I just *do not* understand how modes relate to actually playing music. I'm reading this liveukulele.com/lessons/theory and it talks about how you "end" or "start" on this or that note and that makes it in one mode or another...? I start on whatever note I start on and I don't just play notes in a given order. It really feels like there's some fundamental disconnect between how I think of playing and how music theorists want to describe it

@2ck the key for me is chord theory. Like you say, thinking of notes seems meaningless. But for a chord progression there is a tonic and other chords and their major/minor/augmented/diminished nature will be driven by the mode. Harmony is much easier for me to understand practically than pure scale/mode theory.

@Stoneymonster thanks. that actually does help a bit. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to chord progressions though: really I just don't know many chords

@2ck yeah that was always the hurdle for me with stringed instruments. Just takes time unfortunately.

@2ck try focusing on one mode first and get familiar; I’d suggest Dorian (2nd); if you were playing c maj [CDEFGAB] you would just start on the 2nd note of that scale and play til you get back to it again [DEFGABC] otherwise known as D Dorian

there’s a lot of “jam tracks” on YouTube that let you get loose on em ///

If you have questions or are making headway, feel free to hmu! I’m studying the same thing right now and have no one to bother about it LOL

Hope this helps 🤓

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