Originally Posted by
ombudsman
Well, you can if you like. Some people practice cycling through all the modes of a scale. You can incorporate thinking of the sound of the notes relative to the tonic, or not, or alternate between them, as you do this. It's an effective way to learn the fingerboard very well and to internalize the structure of a scale (any scale, but particularly major/ionian).
It would be hard to learn the modes of major without at least starting out thinking of the notes relative to major, or in a diatonic key (which is another way of saying the same thing). Over time the modes become familiar as scales. People retain information in their own ways, but I think it would be hard for me to learn 6 scales in all keys (assuming I already knew major) while ignoring the fact that they have those close relationship due to them being permutations of the same set of notes. If there is anything special about modes, it's that relationship.
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