So more questions.....

While I believe that modes can be used in a number of different ways, I'd say the primary thing to do would be to harmonize the mode to come up with chords that go nicely with it.

Another thing I've seen (Frank Gambale method) was to take the fourth and fifth chords from the original key and use the modal note as a bass or pedal note. For instance (make this easy), D Dorian, which comes from C Major, Frank's method would have you playing a two chord vamp consisting of the chords F & G with a D note on the bass. Which by the way renders a Dmin7 chord when it's over the F chord. F - A - C + D or D - F - A - C (Dmin7).

That's just another method. I have faith that these guys will come along with some real good info on how to make other progressions.

ive said this too many times in the past i dont want to start something again, so in a few words :

modes = create tonal centre
underlying major chord = ruins any tonal centre the modal melody is trying to create.

Modes show up in a melody when you emphasize a scale tone other than the root. Harmony at the same time could help that emphasis come out, or almost completely hide it, like Alex says. That doesn't mean that the mode is in any way determined by the harmony. It just means that harmony could make the tonal center of the melody hard to hear. That's exactly what happened when you put a major chord behind them. Regardless of what the melody was actually doing, it just sounded like C major.

They're not really intended for anything, they're just there, in a melody, implicated by its choice of notes. In fact, they're a mostly useless concept unless you're trying to play over a really bizarre harmony. Then it can be useful to know what mode will fit the current chord best and result in the most pleasing tune. It only matters when your harmony is bizarre enough to warrant thinking about what tonal center your melody will establish. Weirder harmonies have less definate tonal centers of their own. A simple I IV V progression will effectively wipe out whatever mode it is you think you're making people hear, because it establishes a tonal center of its own so strongly.

I wouldn't even think about them unless you're doing the above or just playing around to hear the difference between the different modes.

I seem to be becoming a bit of an expert on what modes aren't. It almost makes me want to learn some stuff where they actually are useful.

I haven't given much thought to modes, and don't need to, really.

I started off playing Dulcimer (the Appalachian kind, laid on the lap, plucked and noted on the paired melody string only with a stick) about 25 years ago. Although folkie guitarists have gotten ahold of dulcimers and started tuning them to standard pitches to play with guitars and other instruments, even fingering chords on them, the traditional way of playing them is to only note the melody strings as I mentioned with a wooden or bone "noter" while strumming the open melody strings as drones. The pitch of the thing's chosen to suit the singer's voice, and the strings are tuned to frets on the diatonically tuned fretboard of the other strings. But it's tuned to modes by the choice of the open chord the three strings are tuned to. In each tuning there's one mode that plays really well and sounds "at home," and one other mode that you can also play but doesn't sound so strong. The usual dulcimer tuning is Myxolydian mode, the seventh being flat. To play in Ionian mode you have to retune and then the root note isn't on the open string. A lot of modern dulcimers are made with a split seventh fret so it can be played as either Ionian or Myxolydian from the open position.

So anyway, yeah, underlying chords can set you into a mode, but I don't claim to understand the theory of how it works.

underlying chords can emphasize a tonal center through harmony, but are irrelevant to modality, from what i gather.

Modes are pointless to most musicians... i play a little jazz and i still could care less about modes. All they do is confuze people.

if you want to talk about creating a tonal center you want to focus on the melody AND the harmony, and not on modes... when soloing just think of what feeling you want to get across, what interval changes convey that (through varying levels of connosance and dissonance)

harmony and interval theory is all you need, the rest will follow...

if you want to talk about creating a tonal center you want to focus on the melody AND the harmony

Not really. People who compose on guitar often get it backwards - you write melody first, then you create the harmony to support it. Tonal center is determined by the melody... but poor choices in harmonizing the melody can blur the listener's understanding of your tonal center.

In an improvisational situation, the harmony is already cast. You can still place the tonal center of the melody in a spot where it's not well supported by the chord progression, but the chord progression doesn't dictate it.

The differences between melody and harmony when speaking of tonal center can get quite confusing. The short rule of thumb: harmony defines the key, melody the mode of that key. If you harmonize the E Phrygian scale using thirds from that scale, you'll get:

Em-F-G-Am-Bº-C-Dm-Em

These are identical to the chords in the key of C major. If you take a familar melody that's in a minor key, and reharmonize it with the relative major's I-IV-V chords, the result will still sound minor - just not as strongly minor.

Chord progressions should evolve from the melody; if you're in Dorian, you'll naturally want to use a lot of i and v chords... if you're in Phrygian, you'd want to use a lot of i and iv chords. These will help reinforce the modal flavor of the melody - but no matter which chords you use you won't change the mode. The mode depends on the tonal center of the melody.

ok... so modes are a way of veiwing the scale in which a certain tonal center is emphasized... Ok i always did that without paying attention to it...

now that that's clear... how would one go about composing a melody and THEN a chord progression around it? I've Always done the opposite, at least to SOME extent...

then again i mostly improvise...

I'll try to do that... Any pointers on how to go about writing a tune melody first?

...or is THAT the use of modes? to pre-create your tonal center...

and THEN use chords to support it... like building harmonies one note at a time...

Do I have the concept?