It's not about memorizing shapes, if you know the major scale, you know all the modes technicly. It's about knowing the sounds and what makes the modes special. For example, Lydian is the same as Ionian, the difference between them is that Lydian has a #4 ( Sharp 4th ). If you play a simple major triad or bar chord, and attack the #4 instead of the 4 you'll hear some difference, but it's not enough cause you can play lots of things on top of a major chord. Now, if you start to add 7ths and other extensions to the chords, you can start hearing the difference.
There are 3 minor modes: Dorian, Phrygian and Aeolian.
If you play a minor chord you can play them all and it's harder to tell the difference if you don't know their formulas or if you don't attack their characteristic notes.
Dorian is the only one of those 3 modes that has a major sixth. So, if you play, for example, a Gm6, and play Dorian, you can hear it very well, and it blends in very well. Phrygian and Aeolian would clash because they have a flat sixth.
If you didn't understand the theory that I said, the main point is, you have to understand the sound of each mode, and what makes each mode special for you to use it, because if you don't have chords behind it, when you say you're playing Aeolian, you could be playing anything, because the shapes are the same for every mode, in different orders.
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