In lot's of jazz books, i see people saying that when you are playing a 2 5 1 chord progression, you can play a dorian on 2 and mixolydian on 5 and ionian on 1.


Now basically, all 3 of those modes use the Same notes , they just end on different notes. as in the case with dorian on d and mixolydian on G for 2 and 5 respectively.

Are you all able to make them sound different somehow ?

Sutherland

Not only these three, but all seven modes use the 'same notes', in the sense that they are all based on the same intervals as a major scale but starting on a different degree. In other words, a mixolydian scale starting on G is the fifth mode of C major. Ionian mode is identical to a major scale. They will sound different purely by where they start and end.

If you are improvising, though, you might do well to be a bit more creative than just playing scales. The chords that go with these scales equate to D-7, G7 & C. Try and drop chord notes on beats 1 and 3. You can try going outside the scale, using chromatic notes. Experiment and see what it sounds like. Listen to the masters, see how they do it. Timing is crucial.

Good luck!

When you listen to modal music you can usually tell where the note centres are, ie, it might use the same "notes" as C major, but might be built mostly around G,B,D or D,F,A instead of C,E,G. You could also compare a mode with the equivalent major, so G mixolydian compared to G major has F natural instead of F sharp, and the music would be as if in G major but with a flattened seventh. Similarly D dorian has flattened third and seventh.

Yes i'd agree with neil, the harmonic framework will the suggest the correct mode in context. Ultimately we are only dealing with 12 notes, so a lot of personality can be poured into the mix, anything can be made to work. I like tonal colour and tension, i start my students with pentatonics, then Blues, then the diatonic modes(dorian,mixolydian,aeolian etc), it goes without saying they have to learn the cycle of 5ths and then everything else is just variations around that.