4 Lydian mode chord progressions (Lydian explained)

The Lydian mode is the harmonic and melodic  fundament of many different songs and genres.  Why is writing in this mode so effective  and how can you start using it? Hey everybody Xander here,  welcome to Learning Music Skills.  The place where I talk about all kinds of  music topics for becoming a better songwriter,   producer and musician. Let's get creative! I have four Lydian chord  progressions lined up for you.  All of them are in a different style  and exhibit a different character.  I wrote a film music, dance music, perfume  piano music and a singer songwriter-like   example for this episode today. And along the way, while we're   exploring these Lydian chord progressions I'll  give you some more tips and music theory insights.  Here is Lydian chord progression number one: To make the Lydian mode we take a major scale and  we raise the fourth scale degree by half a step.  And now we build on each scale  degree a triad and voila!  We have our complete harmonic  and melodic resource.  Our first chord progression was in C Lydian. This means that the F sharp   is our raised fourth scale degree. The example already sounds great but what if   we wanted to accentuate the lydian mode even more? We can do that by adding a melody   which will emphasize the F sharp a little bit  more so we can get that nice Lydian flavour. This brings us to Lydian progression number two. I have applied the Lydian mode to a heavy   electronic and synth oriented track. The example is from my own music   project called Facing Mountains. It is an excerpt from the drop   section of the song called Echo Returns. The link is in the description if you like. This part is in G Lydian  and the raised fourth tone,   that is unique to the Lydian  mode is the C-sharp in this case.  As you can see the melody emphasizes  the C-sharp on many occasions.  So the result is that the Lydian  mode is really noticeable.  If you want your chord progression  to sound like it's in the Lydian mode   then you need to emphasize the chords that  have the raised fourth scale degree in them.  Because this is the tone that's  unique to the Lydian mode.  In case of the Lydian mode the chords on the  second, fourth and seventh scale degree have the   raised fourth in our case the C-sharp in it. But we cannot use the fourth scale degree,   because this is a diminished chord and this  wants to take us back to the parent major scale.  Which is in our case D major. So in Lydian the most important   triads are the tonic triad, the second  scale degree and the seventh scale degree.  This brings us to Lydian progression number three. Maybe you've noticed that in  this example we don't have   any of the important chords that I just mentioned.  Except for the tonic chord. Let's have a closer look.  Because we're using seventh chords now, also the  fifth scale degree has the raised fourth note in   it, which is the major seven of that chord. And also when we take a look at the melody,   it plays the F-sharp subtly and this  is the raised fourth scale degree.  So this thickens our  perception of the Lydian mode.  This takes us to our last example,  Lydian progression number four. The Lydian mode can really evoke some dreamy  and emotional textures, don't you agree?  It's not without reason that many songwriters  like to use it because it's just so good   at conveying a personal message. In this example we really confirm   that C is our tonic and also the pedal tone on  G strengthens the dominant of our tonic chord.  The chord on the seventh scale degree  which has the raised four in it   creates some nice friction with pedal note G. And again just like our previous examples,   the melody confirms in a beautiful  way that we're in the Lydian mode. When you want to write in a certain  mode you need to think about   how you are going to confirm the mode. It's important that you find out which   note is unique for the mode that you want to use.  And then also you find out which  chords have this note in it.  Once you find out what the chords are, then you  use these chords more often than other chords   because this confirms the mode. But be careful and don't forget   to avoid the diminished triad, because this one  wants to take you back to the parent major scale   and this is not what we want. The Lydian mode is really   unmistakably beautiful and versatile. In this video I only highlighted a few   options that you have in the Lydian mode but there  are of course far more possibilities out there.  And if you have any good examples  be sure to share them with us! In any case that was it for  the beautiful Lydian mode.  If you have any topic requests or suggestions,  drop them in the comment section below.  Don't forget to like and subscribe  to the channel and for now...  See you next time!

Channel: Learning Music Skills

Views: 42,201

Keywords: learning music skills, learn songwriting, songwriting tips, songwriting skills, producer tricks, musical modes, music modes, lydian mode, songwriting 101, songwriting tutorial, music composition tips, church modes, modal melodies, understand modes, modal theory, guitar modes, modal harmony, lydian chord progression, lydian melody, lydian scale, lydian chords, c lydian chord progression, lydian, music theory modes, songwriting, music theory, composing music, yt:cc=on

Id: okW3Kax5s20

Length: 7min 4sec (424 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021