Learning the Major Modes

Seems the world and his dog understands "a bit" about modes and as you talk to them about it there eyes get bigger and their mouth makes an O shape as they realise how easy it is, really. I've spent a couple of years on modes and this is my take on them.

There are two ways of making modes, these are the relative method and the derivitive method.

Derivative method
When you first hear of modes you understand that they are all the same notes starting on different degrees of a scale.

So F major would result in the following modes:

F ionian
G dorian
A phrygian
Bb lydian
C Mixolydian
D Aeolian
E Locrian

and each one of these would contain the notes A Bb C D E F G starting from different points. This really only means that if I want to play the G dorian mode I make it from the F major scale.

Relative Method
This requires a bit of effort but is essentially easier I think. If you want to play F dorian for some reason, would you really want to figure out that that's the Eb major scale starting on F? I wouldn't, so I learnt the scales and was relieved to find a great deal of logic and order in them that made remembering them easier. Here they are in F

ionian : F G A Bb C D E F
dorian: F G Ab Bb C D Eb F
phrygian: F Gb Ab Bb C Db Eb F
lydian: F G A B C D E F
mixolydian: F G A Bb C D Eb F
aeolian: F G Ab Bb C Db Eb F
locrian: F Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F

Simple, eh? No? okay.. well ignore this paragraph and skip to the next list of modes, come back if you want to understand what you're seeing. Basically these scales are relative modes to F, so obviously they're derived from another major scale. If you figure out that F lydian is C major and F mixolydian is Bb major and F dorian is Eb major you can apply these to a cycle of fifths. like Cb Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C, the modes fall into an order that presents a systematic way of learning the modes, if you work backwards using a cycle of fourths. #4, nat4, b7, b3, b6, b2, b5

lydian: F G A B C D E F
ionian : F G A Bb C D E F
mixolydian: F G A Bb C D Eb F
dorian: F G Ab Bb C D Eb F
aeolian: F G Ab Bb C Db Eb F
phrygian: F Gb Ab Bb C Db Eb F
locrian: F Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F

You see the modes can easily be remembered this way, by comparing to the major scale:

lydian: #4
ionian :
mixolydian: b7
dorian: b7, b3
aeolian: b7, b3, b6
phrygian: b7, b3, b6, b2
locrian: b7, b3, b6, b2, b5

So all that remains is to know the major scales and the 5 positions of the CAGED patterns well enough to be able to sharpen or flatten notes to obtain notes of a given mode.