I play piano, recorder, guitar and dulcimer. I arrange music and I compose it. I improvise.   I lead friends in music and teach them some, though I do not claim to be a professional teacher.

In 48 years of this, I have never found modes to be important or helpful. Oh, it's interesting to look at a song and say, "This is in the Dorian mode," (for example), but it doesn't really get a person anywhere. If you are a new player and you don't "get" modal music, don't worry about it.

In the middle ages, when a church musician might have been illiterate and the notes might not even have names yet (A to G), it might have helped to know that a certain group of chants was in a certain mode. It gave one an idea of which note to start and end on.