How to use the mixolydian 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 [Music] the major scale is useful as a point of reference for all other scales or modes the focus of this video is the mixolydian mode it is also known as the fifth mode of the major scale it has the scale degrees 1 2 3 4 5 6 and flat 7. c mixolydian therefore has the notes c d e f g a and b flat [Music] as you can see the only difference between the major scale and mixolydian mode is the flat 7 note because the flat 7 note is further away from the tonic or one note than in major mixolydian has a more relaxed sound that doesn't feel like it wants to resolve as strongly as the major ionian scale it is also worth looking at the dorian mode it has the scale degrees 1 2 flat 3 4 5 6 and flat 7. so the only difference between the dorian and mixolydian is the three notes these notes of difference will be important in defining our mixolydian chord progressions later on the mixolydian mode is one that is used widely in lots of different styles of music everything from pop to jazz and blues its distinctive mages sound makes it very popular a lot of classic rock relies on the seven chord of the mixolydian mode for its core sound 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 mixolydian 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 mixolydian the next note is d if we skip a note from d we have f skip a note from f and we get to a d f and a create a d minor chord this becomes our two chord we then repeat the process for the remaining notes of the mix 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 minor three is e diminished four is f major five is g minor six is a minor and seven is b flat major let's now look at some common chord progressions using this pool of chords although we're in the key of c mixolydian 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 as we saw earlier the only note that is different from the major ionian mode is the flat 7 and the note of difference with the dorian mode is the three note we will therefore want to use chords that spell out these differences in our mixolydian chord progressions arguably the most common mixolydian chord progression is one seven four one it uses all of the basic major triads in the mixolydian key please note that we will use the key of c mixolydian in our examples [Music] this is the best known mixolydian progression it is used extensively in classic rock songs and it is easy to see why the first reason is it uses all major chords which means on guitar it can be easily played by using open or bar chords therefore many guitarists will come across this progression by simply practicing playing major chords from a theoretical level the progression also works well starting on the one major chord clearly defines that we are in a major mode this highlights the note of difference the three note we mentioned earlier with the dorian mode moving to the seven chord then strongly plays our flat seven note as the root of this chord so within the first two chords we have defined our progression as clearly mixolydian and not ionian or dorian the descent from seven to four and then to one contains root notes that are a perfect fourth interval apart from one another this provides a nice symmetrical resolution to the progression you may also see these three chords in different orders within a progression so feel free to experiment before we move on 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 another popular mixolydian chord progression is similar in structure as the first progression we saw but this time we introduced the minor 5 chord see how using a minor chord changes the feel of the progression this time around [Music] like before this is clearly a mix lydian progression as previously the one chord anchors us in a major mode moving to the five chord introduces our flat seven note again the basic triads that have the flat seven note in them are three five and seven this separates us from major slash ionian we then descend down to four and back to one let's now look at two more common chord progressions we're now bringing in the minor two chord you'll see that it is replacing the four chord from the first two progressions like four two is also in the major ionian mode so we need to pair it again with the one chord and either five or seven to complete our mixolydian sound pay attention to how swapping the major iv chord with the minor ii chord changes the feel of these progressions [Music] so far we have only used basic triads in our mixolydian progressions but you are of course free to use different chord types in your mixolydian songs you can experiment with this on any of the chords but where it is particularly interesting is in introducing or emphasizing the flat 7 note as you understand now this will reinforce the mixolydian sound there are many ways to do this so what we discuss here won't be exhaustive if you add a flat seven note to the one chord it becomes a dominant seventh chord here's the first progression we discussed with a one dominant seventh chord in it this time [Music] the four chord could be played as a sus 4 chord this removes the sixth note of the mode from the chord and replaces it with the flat 7 note let's add this chord to our progression with the dominant 7. [Music] another way you can emphasize a note is by using chord inversions we know that the 5 chord has the flat 7 note in it if we play the first inversion of the 5 chord it puts the flat 7 note as the lowest or the bass note of the chord this makes it stand out more than the standard chord let's swap the seven chord for this inverted chord in the previous chord progression [Music] you can swap out chords in your progressions in different parts of the song to get more mileage out of your chord progressions let's play the original 174 progression followed by our new version imagine this as a song section and experiment with these sort of ideas in your own mixolydian compositions [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: Mixolydian Mode Theory, Mixolydian Mode, Mixolydian Mode Explained, Mode Theory Explained, Music Theory, Songwriting, Songwriting Explained, Song writing, Song Writing Explained, mixolydian mode, mixolydian, modes, mixolydian scale, scales, music modes, music theory lesson, music theory tutorial, music theory course, mode theory explained, mixolydian mode explained, music theory for beginners, music theory lessons, How to use the mixolydian mode to make chords and progressions

Id: JzSxjFrxkfc

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022