Modal arpeggios
Each mode's sound in five notes: its seventh chord, plus the one note that makes it that mode. Play the arpeggio over the root and you hear the mode, not just the chord.
C Dorian
Cm7 + 6 · C E♭ G A B♭
Hear it
12♭3456♭71
WHWWWHW
root
chord tone
color note: what makes it Dorian2 4 6in the mode, left out of the arpeggio
Why the 6? Cm7 sits in Aeolian, Phrygian too. The 6 is the note that tells your ear "Dorian": land on it and let it ring.
On the neck
Frets 7–11, the root on the 6th string. Hear it plays this shape up and down.
Keep stacking: the upper structures
Every other note of C Dorian, from the root up to the 13th. Any three in a row make a triad you can play over Cm7.1 C♭3 E♭5 G♭7 B♭9 D11 F13 A
E♭
♭3 5 ♭7
Gm
5 ♭7 9
B♭
♭7 9 11
Dm
9 11 13 · has the 6, so it sounds most Dorian
Hear what one note does
The same Cm7, then a different color note for each mode. Play them back to back.1♭356♭7
cool, hip and sophisticated: a minor sound with a bright sixth1♭35♭6♭7
sad, serious, tragic1♭2♭35♭7
dark and Spanish, flamencoPlay arpeggios over a progression on the Arpeggio play-along · See C Dorian on Scales & modes · The Mode ladder