It is nice to understand where the modes came from and how they were formed. it was a HUGE A-Ha moment for me to finaly realize what I read several times, but did not fully understand until I saw a video on it, and was told that the modes are all based off the C major scale. The C major scale is the only scale that plays all natural notes. (only septontic standard scale, there may be others that I don’t know about)
C major is — C-D-E-F-G-A-B
D dorian is all the natural notes of the C major scale starting on D as the root note. - D-E-F-G-A-B-C
E Phrygian all the notes starting on E - E-F-G-A-B-C-D
F Lydian all the notes starting on F - F-G-A-B-C-D-E
G Mixilydian all the notes starting on G - G-A-B-C-D-E-F
A Aeolian all the notes starting on A - A-B-C-D-E-F-G
B Locrain all the notes starting on B - B-C-D-E-F-G-A
This gives you the scales and the shapes, if you learn the shapes of the scale mode, you can always double check the accidentals by playing the shape and checking which notes you play.
I will say for 100% fact, that moment that I understood the MODES and the way they were derived from the C major scale, was a HUGE A-HA moment for me in my early music theory studies.
It really helped to know why the notes in certain modes get sharpened or flattened out. It was to play the natural notes in progression starting at a different root note.
When you move the scales modes around and start on different roots, but play that mode’s intervals or shape, you get accidentals in scale.
And of course, each mode can do this, starting on its root of origian, like D - Dorian, played its scale intervals - Shape on a different root note, you get different accidentals, and different ones on E as the root and F as the root, etc…
It is the same for the Major scale, which is the first one usually taught, I think for the fact it is easier to Sartre to learn without the accidentals.
Major scales
C-D-E-F-G-A-B
D-E-F# G-A-B-C#
E-F#-G# A-B-C#-D#
F-G-A-bB C-D-E
G-A-B C-D-E-F#
A-B-C# D-E-F#-G#
B-C#-D# E-F#-G#-A#
I don’t have all the modes memorized, and right now, if I wanted to know one, I would play the shape over the fretboard, starting on the root note that I wanted to know, and figure it out.
It is great to know all of this stuff eventually, but I am not there yet, This is close to the limit to what I have studied so far, that i retain without referring to the fretboard or notes (class written notes, not the notes on the fretboard. lol)
It is my goal to know all the scales, modes and such, but I am still early in my studies.
HTH