I was watching a few videos about modes from Ben Levin, and he was explaining all the modes in C major as people tend to do.

But he took it a step further than most, demonstrating all the modes using C as the starting note, and then explaining the key that the different modes are in (e.g., C Dorian is in the key of Bb, since C is the second note of Bb, etc.).

As he put that up I had a flash of revelation and an assumption: that if I organized the modes in order of 4ths based on the key of the mode starting on C, I'd have something I've seen before.

So I wrote down all the modes starting on C with the resulting key that each mode is in, and then organized it in order of 4ths (G C F Bb Eb Ab Db).

I was pleased as punch when, as I expected, the modes, in order were:
- Lydian
- Ionian
- Mixolydian
- Dorian
- Aeolian
- Phrygian
- Locrian

This is not the order the modes are typically listed in. Typically they are listed in the order of the starting note in the key of C (Ionian - C, Dorian - D, Phrygian - E, Lydian - F, Mixolydian - G, Aeolian - A, Locrian - B).

But in the order from my 'flash' the modes are listed in terms of what people tend to call their 'brightness' to 'darkness.' The first 3 are the major modes, and the last 4 are the minor modes (flat 3rd).

And in order, they progress: 1 sharp, no sharps or flats, 1 flat, 2 flats, 3 flats, 4 flats, 5 flats.

This is one of those "I should have learned this when I was a kid" moments, but it was still cool.

Yes, I had a teacher who taught me the modes this way. I was initially surprised to learn that Lydian was the most inside-sounding (knowing nothing more, I would expect Ionian). But my ear agrees with the list; I definitely prefer the sharp-4 sound of the Lydian scale over the natural fourth in the Ionian. I guess the half-step clash with the fifth is more appealing to me than the half-step clash with the third.

My teacher would have me play the modes in the way most learn: Playing the relative scales so that each scale has the same key signature. But then he would also have me play in parallel keys: Keeping the tonic the same, e.g., G Ionian, G Dorian, G Phrygian, et seq. In this way, you really start to become aware of the relationship between the modes. I would start with G Ionian, then play G Lydian. Go back to G Ionian, then play G Mixolydian. That helps to relate the major modes—loosely speaking—back to Ionian. Then play G Aeolian, then G Dorian. Go back to G Aeolian, then G Phrygian. That helps relate the minor modes back to G Aeolian. In this way, for example, you can view the Dorian mode as a minor scale with a natural 6th instead of the usual way of a flat-3, flat-7 scale.

Jerry C's Canon Rock plays on this idea of parallel keys. The song, primarily in D Ionian, changes ("modulates" ?) to D Locrian in a bridge near the end of the song. In comes back to D Ionian before the song's end. If you haven't heard that song, you should check it out. (I play a cover of it on my youtube channel.)

Get an instrument with lots of sustain, say a square-wave synth or a heavily distorted guitar, and hold a G note. Then play all seven parallel keys with G as the tonic and hear how they all sound over the G.

Excuse me...Jerry C's Canon Rock modulates from D Ionian to D Aeolian, not Locrian.