One question

[dwest2419]

Could anyone help me out here. Im trying to study jazz and the guy gave an illustration and said for me to learn A Dorain on every string of the guitar fretboard and did well untill he played A Dorain and started on the note E and ended on the note E and he also said that key signature was G major and the tonal center is A minor. That means if all the notes in the key of G would G A B C D E F# and E would be the sixth note of the G major scale. So that means he mustve been playing E Aeolian over an A minor chord instead of playing A Dorain which means you start on note A and end on the note A which is supposed to be played over the A minor chord. Was this an error?

[borge]

No error.

the notes in E Aeolian are the same set of notes as A Dorian.
You cannot 'play E aeolian over an Am chord'
The chord (Amin) will set the tonal centre as Am so that this set of notes: A B C D E F# E G A will sound as A dorian regardless of what note you start and/or end on..

If you want that set of notes to sound as E Aeolian you first need to set the tonal centre as Emin. Same goes for all the other modes from that set of notes...

[dwest2419]

Thanks you cleared up alot of confusion for me. I was always taught that if the tonal centre was E min then you would play E dorian you would start on the note E and end on E in order for it to be called E Dorian but because Phrygian Aeolain share the same notes along with Dorian that means... your essentially playing Phrygian and Aeolian aswell so you could start on Phyrgian's starting note and it would be called E Dorian, right? It all matters about the chord, right? If F# min was the tonal centre the key signature was D major and say if I started on note F# and ended on the note F# and I started to play F# Phrygian would that means I would be playing or could call F# Phrygian the same as E Dorian or C Aeolian because they all share the same notes?

[borge]

Ask yourself this question: do the melodies in modal music always start and end on the root note?
Of course not! that would lead only to very boring and predictable music.

It all matters about the chord, right? If F# min was the tonal centre the key signature was D major and say if I started on note F# and ended on the note F# and I started to play F# Phrygian would that means I would be playing or could call F# Phrygian the same as E Dorian or C Aeolian because they all share the same notes?

No not at all.
Sharing all the same notes doesn't mean you can interchange the names.
Your example has nothing to do E Dorian or C Aeolian and their names should not be mentioned. it is F# Phrygian only.