IMHO in the beginning to learn what each mode does,(the feel) chord progressions do not help much if you want to stay in tbe rock-kind of things...(well..with jazz/fusion ofcourse things are different).
A nice example of what for example mixo can do in "simple power chord"-rock is "american woman".Listen to the original the guess who start it like a pure blues-thing and then..this wonderfull mixo-line comes and gives it this beautifull sexy-feel..I went nuts when I heard this song for the first time early in the 80s(thanx to my older brother).
It speaks for itself that Lenny Kravitz did not use this Mixo-line at all besides some mixo-style in the solo with a sound I did not like..
I guess they sat in the studio doing this song talking like "we cant do this mixo-stufc because the people will not like it" or something like this.
But this line together with hook is all the money.Removing it made the cover "just another pentatonic rock song".
Listen to this older stuff can teach us a lot more than anything else.
For nice dorian stuff listen to mickey moody and bernie mardsen in the early whitesnake days.."blindman" or the nice cover of "aint no love" and some other classics with a singer who got his scale-lessons already with blackmore and lord at deep purple earlier in his days."Aint cry no more today" has one of the most beautifull mixo-style intros in rock hitory.