In Peter's article and the "Modal Harmony" article I gave a link to, the "practical side" of modes is all about the kinds of chords need to harmonize modal tunes.

But what I want to know, as a fiddler, is how to use modal tunes in medleys.

I know that every major key has a relative minor key; is it also useful to say that the Ionian mode of a given note has a relative Dorian and relative Mixolydian?

It's my observation that going from a major key tune into another tune in the relative minor works great (i.e. G major tune followed by E minor tune), but that going from a major tune into what would be its relative Dorian (i.e. D major in E Dorian) doesn't work at all.

A lot of the tunes in my scrapbook I can identify as Dorian, but I'm less sure about Mixolydian - are "Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "Mairi's Wedding" Mixolydian? If they are, then I've tried going from a major into the relative Mixolydian and found that it's workable but not as seamlessly as into the relative minor.

I wonder if E minor and E Dorian tunes would flow well together, or A major with A Mixolydian tunes, since they share the same starting guitar chord...

These are my observations, but they're based on a very small sample and some doubts as to whether I've identified the modes correctly.

I'd like to know if there is some systematic way of laying out what tunes can go with what.

Thanks, Marion