Ok...so what I was trying to explain above is that you can kind of bypass the names of the modes and a lot of that stuff and adapt the major and minor pentatonic scales with 2 more notes to make any of the major or minor modes.
Which notes to add depends on the progression that 'fits' from which the previous material may help a bit, Frank Gamble's video 'modes, no more mystery' is quite good at explaining how to identify modal progressions and I think it's largely on youtube perhaps.
Briefly though...
if you have a minor progression, you can play the minor pentatonic scale.
If the progression is minor and the IV chord is major, likely dorian so add the 2nd and 6th degree. So, for Dm, pentatonic plus C# and Bnat. If the IV chord is minor iv, then aeolian is perhaps a better choice, so the second and b6 notes, so C# and Bb in Dm.
The phrygian mode is more "exotic" can sound a bit spanish or arabic perhaps. You add the b2 and b6 to the minor pentatonic.
Here's a progression that I made up that is a bit "phrygian"...
//Dm7..Ebmaj7../Dm7..Cm7/Gm7..Ebmaj7/Dm....//
the 2 chord is a half step above i and major and the vii chord is minor compared to the other minor modes, so Cm in a Dm phrigian progression.
In truth though, you could use phrigian or Dm pentatonic plus a b2 and b6 notes, or Eb and Bb. If you don't like the word "phrigian and it sounds "all greek to you" then call it a "spanish minor" if you like.
Major modes are the same kinds of things...
Major pentatonic, b7 to the major scale makes mixolydian, good if the I chord is dominant and in C this note would be Bb and the VII chord would be a Bb major. Lydian is the darling of people like Via but it has its uses, it is basically the major scale with a #4.
If thinking pentatonics plus two notes...
Major pentatonic plus 4 and 7 (F and B, in C major) is ionian or "major".
For mixolydian, pentatonic major plus 4 and b7 (F and Bb, in C major)
For lydian, pentatonic major plus #4 and 7 (F# and B, in C major)
Being an aussie too, you may recall the matt finish song, short note, this is an interesting example of a 'lydian' progression...
/ Dmaj7sus2 / Amaj7 / repeat...
so, in the key of D but the notes D-E-
F#-G#-B-
C#-D
So, the notes are the major pentatonic, plus the added notes in bold. The #4 is the particular color note for lydian and gives it it's sound and in this key is F#.
...
There are lots of ways to add colour to your vocabulary and certain techniques for different sounds and approaches and types of music.
If you wanted to play for instance, you would need to learn how to use arpeggios to navigate through changes and modulations. These things have their uses in more 'static' things though as well.
In truth there is an infinite number of scales and approaches, learning everything by rote is a bit of a tough call...and maybe not necessary for what you want to do.
Expanding and superimposing pentatonics are a power ful tool...
Here's something I was thinking about from the jazz vocab recently...some of these kind of out notes are chromatic ideas...so fall "outside"...
So, here's just one principle. You can approach any melody note, say a scale tone or a chord tone or the melody itself, from a semitone above and below in an "enclosure"...
so, here's an Am pentatonic lick or melody...
--------------------------------5----------------------
-------------------------5--------------5~~-----------
----------5------7--------------------------------------
---7---------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
here's the same thing with a chromatic enclosure on every note...
-------------------------------------------6-4-5----------------------
-----------------------------------6s4-5---------5~~---------------
---------------6s4-5---s8-6-7--------------------------------------
---7~s8-6-7------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
Of course you don't need to do this kind of thing with every single note like this, but if you play this you will hear that original melody being 'spelled out' with all kinds of seemingly out notes surrounding them.
...
But it's a long road and depends where you want to be headed. Modes will add 2 more colour notes to pentatonics, chromatic ideas such as passing notes will fill the gaps.
If you want to add more "leaps" then a good idea is to learn intervals and play through
melodic sequences to get a feel for them.
So, you might alternate each tone in a major scale say, this will be jumping about in thirds, major and minor, in line with the harmonizations. these kinds of things can often be more effective along the strings and great fro getting from one position to another....
So, C maj...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-----5---6---8----10----12-----13-----15-----17----------------
---5---7---9---10---12-----14-----16-----17--------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
But you know, got to practice these things in all positions and all strings and keys etc, etc. You will see that it is alternating M3,m3,m3,M3,M3,m3,m3,M3 in line with the triads of the major scale.
Of course these are just thirds and one way to play them...there are hundreds if not infinite patterns you could make up...
...
But, if one is inclined towards the blues, there is heaps of notes that "make sense" in that language...
For instance, there's the pentatonic minor. The b3 is a blue note if playing Am pentatonic over A7 say...so you could also add the normal third and of course the b5...
So in an A blues you have the five pentatonic notes, perhaps some modal notes, say dorian and then some blue notes...
So for an A7 blues you could make use of A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A or dorian or Am pentatonic plus 2nd and 6th degree and add also, C# as the natural 3rd and Eb as the b5 blue note....that gives you 10 out of a possible 12 notes on that chord alone.
The same notes and principles can be used for major and other modes as well.
There are kind of melodic conventions to using 'blue notes' of course.
...
So, a big pandoras box. opening up for you...hopefully there will be hope in the bottom of it...
I think working on progressions is a great way to start into learning things, put things to use asap instead of trying to learn everything and by rote.
The slide rule thing and working out of pentatonics is not perhaps as hard as I've made it seem...hmmm
oh...It might be a good idea to make a bit of an audit of what you do know and where you would like to go next. Do you know all the notes on the fretboard, can you tell a note is a chord tone, can you tell the scale degrees of say the pentatonic scale so you could easily add a 2nd or b2 to it?
If you want to test out some 'progressions' you make up or come across and get an handle on what are appropriate notes or approaches to it, I'd be happy to oblige, but You got more than enough to digest for now I suspect...
pete