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Before I started properly getting into electric guitar and writing my own music I was almost completely unaware of all the different modes belonging to each scale, and certainly didn't pay much attention to them if I did. Presumably the musical side of the community will know what modes are already, but just to clarify -

Let's take the scale of C Major, for instance.

C D E F G A B C D E ... etc.

From C to C, an octave, this is the Ionian mode a.k.a the major scale. However if you were to start on a different degree of the scale that isn't the tonic and travel an octave from that note, you have yourself a different mode of that scale. Obviously the notes differ for different scales but the principles are the same.

So, in this example -

Ionian (C) Dorian (D) Phrygian (E) Lydian (F) Mixolydian (G) Aeolian (A) Locrian (B)

... are the modes of C Major, when you travel an octave from the given note. (The Aeolian mode is also known as the natural minor, by the way.)

When I first started writing my own music, unless the piece was in a minor key, I favoured the conventional Ionian mode, but I have since started to write sections in Lydian, as the overall sound is so much more.. romantic, y'know.

Different people prefer different styles of music which might focus around different modes, so it'll be interesting to see what spreads your toast.

Happy posting!

Lydian master race reporting in.

The #4 makes a lot of normal pop chord progressions unfeasible and it's hard to make it seem like you're not just stopping on a IV when you try to resolve to a I. But when you do, it's got this wonderful dreamy, unanchored quality.

good god where did i learn to talk about scales with such imagery what have i become

While I don't really use it modally—that is to say, the emphasis remains on the tonality rather than the melody—the majority of songs I write are in natural minor, so my vote has to go for Aeolian. Because it's awesome (unlike Ionian, which sucks; I don't know who decided to make Ionian the default). If we were to disqualify Aeolian for being too conventional, my second favourite pick would probably be Dorian (e.g. Left The Right). It has much of what I like from the minor scale, like a minor tonic and dominant chord and a major subtonic, but it gives you a proper (rather than diminished) supertonic, so you can have that upward motion in the chord progressions, which gives it all a slightly more... choleric vibe.