Once again, I’ve got a video inspired by a discussion on /r/guitar, where I’ve been hanging out recently. This video was inspired by expressing some deep confusion about the modes and receiving the same crappy explanations that have, sadly, become the standard. “It’s just that scale, but starting on a different note.” This explanation sucks. People seem to use it as a go-to “simple” explanation, but it totally misses the point. Yes, you can figure out the notes/intervals of a particular mode by starting a particular scale from a different note, but that really doesn’t say much about what makes them musically unique and different.
I think that a better, and just as simple, explanation is “the same group of notes, but with a different tonal center.”
I attempt to illustrate that concept in the video below.