How to use the lydian mode to make chords and progressions

the major scale also known as the ionian mode has seven notes if we label each note with a number you get the scale degrees one two three four five six and seven it doesn't matter what the tonic note of our major scale is it always has the scale degrees one to seven for example c major has the notes c d e f g a and b with the seven scale degrees we mentioned the major scale is useful as a point of reference for all other scales or modes the focus of this video is the lydian mode it is also known as the fourth mode of the major scale it has the scale degrees 1 2 3 sharp 4 5 6 and 7. c lydian therefore has the notes c d e f sharp g a and b as you can see the only difference between the major scale and the lydian mode is the sharp four note this note will be important in defining our lydian chord progressions that we create later on it gives the lydian mode its floaty dreamlike brightness that is elevated beyond the standard major scale this particular sound isn't used a lot in pop or rock but will be recognizable from the huge amounts of film scores and soundtracks that use it a lot of songs use lydium for a small part of the song maybe a verse or a chorus and then go back to another mode or key if you need more help with modes then check out our video in the description below you can use the notes from a scale or mode to create a series of chords these chords are what make up a key in songwriting the most basic chords are constructed with three notes and are called triads they will be either major minor diminished or augmented let's use the c lydian mode we saw earlier to construct our chords to create our first chord we take the first note which is c and then skip a note which takes us to e and then skip a note from e which gets us to g these three notes will create a triad in this case c e and g create c major this is our one chord then we move on to the next note and start again in c lydian the next note is d if we skip a note from d we have f sharp skip a note from f sharp and we get to a d f sharp and a create a d major chord this becomes our two chord we then repeat the process for the remaining notes of the lydian mode to generate a set of seven chords note how we have repeated the notes twice here to make constructing the chords easier to visualize this gives us the following chords one is c major two is d major three is e minor four is f sharp diminished five is g major six is a minor and seven is b minor let's now look at some common chord progressions using this pool of chords although we're in the key of c lydian remember that the roman numeral system means you can use these progressions in any key you like just work out your pool of seven chords and use the progressions in the same roman numeral order the key to creating lydian sound and chord progressions is to use chords that have the sharp four note in them as we saw earlier this is the only note that is separating lydian from the major scale so if you want to make clear what mode you are in then keep coming back to chords with that defining note the basic lydian triads that have the sharp four note in them are two four and seven the simplest and most common way to establish a lydian sound is to have a repetitive vamp between the one chord and the two chord will you see lydia in our examples here's how that sounds [Music] the reason this simple chord progression is strongly lydian is because it takes us from the one chord which anchors the key and then to the two chord which has the sharp four note in it this makes it clearly lydian and not major slash ionian because it doesn't deviate from these two chords there is no ambiguity in the progression we are in lydian this one to two scaffolding is used widely in the most common lydian chord progressions before we move to the next chord progression i'd like to thank you for choosing to watch this video we rely on your kind support to keep the channel running if you are able to help us we now have channel memberships and super thanks available these allow us to keep on making songwriting content that is available to everyone click on thanks and join below this video to find out more let's now introduce the three chord the three chord can be easily used in lydian progressions because it shares two notes in common with the one chord because of this it won't pull the listener away from the lydian sound here is a basic one two three progression listen out for the escalator effect that having the chords in number order creates [Music] do [Music] another chord which is strongly lydian is the seven chord it has the sharp four note in it and also has two notes in common with the two chord let's use these four chords in a couple of common lydian chord progressions [Music] [Music] every mode has a major scale with the same notes for example c lydian has the notes c d e f sharp g a and b and g major ionian has the notes g a b c d e and f sharp this means that they also share the same pool of seven chords they just have different roman numerals because they are in a different order this makes modal chord progressions harmonically unstable depending on what chords you focus your progressions on which is known as the tonal center will draw the listener's ear into a certain key you can use the same set of chords but change what key it feels like the song is in there is always some subjectivity with modal music as to what key you are in but this is particularly strong with lydian this is because the v chord in lydian which generally has an important role in major sounding chord progressions is the one chord in its relative major scale and the one chord is the same as the four chord another important chord in major progressions for example in c lydian the one to five progression uses c major and g major in the key of g major this would be four to one this instability means that the use of the five chord in lydian can very easily begin to sound like the tone or center and pull your progression into the major ionian key you can of course use this confusion to your advantage if you like the ambiguous nature of this then use it in your song or don't worry about it at all but it is worth considering and if you want to just stay with the lydian sound then it is easiest to avoid the five chord altogether and center your song around one and two here are some more common lydian chord progressions that use the v chord see what you think about the tonal center of these [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so far we have only used basic triads in our lydian progressions but you are of course free to use different chord types in your lydian songs you can experiment with this on any of the chords but where it is particularly interesting is in introducing or emphasizing the sharp four note as you understand now this will reinforce the lydian sound there are many ways to do this so what we discuss here won't be exhaustive the 3 chord doesn't have the sharp 4 note in it if we add this note to the 3 chord we create a minor add 9 chord here's a previous example with the three and nine this time around [Music] [Applause] if we take the five chord with its various problems that we discussed and add the sharp four note it becomes a major 7th chord here's a previous progression with the 5 major 7th chord how do you feel it affects the tonal center this time around [Music] [Applause] [Music] watch the video on screen now to better understand all seven of the major scale modes

Channel: Write A Song

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Keywords: Lydian Mode Theory, Lydian Mode, Lydian Mode Explained, Mode Theory Explained, Music Theory, Songwriting, Songwriting Explained, Song writing, Song Writing Explained, lydian mode, lydian scale, lydian, modes, music theory lesson, lydian mode explained, modes of the major scale, major scale, mode theory explained, music modes, song writing explained, lydian mode guitar, guitar modes, music theory modes, modal scales, How to use the lydian mode to make chords and progressions

Id: ThhpxSIYX0I

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 17 2022