How To Write Chord Progressions Using The Lydian Mode

in this video you learn how to write chord progressions in the lydian mode now the lydian mode is an incredibly beautiful sounding mode full of ore and wonder and it's a favorite of film composers for that reason but it can also be found in many songs the Lydia mode is the brightest of all the modes even brighter than the major scale hi this is Simon candy from acoustic guitar lessonsonline.net and in this lesson I'm going to break the Lydia mode down for you so you can easily understand it then we'll have a look at how to write chord progressions in the Lydia mode targeting the all-important characteristic note that gives lydian the sound that is lydian funny enough that is what we're going to do then I'll run you through some progressions using the Lydia mode of course and then some actual songs for examples of the Lydia mode being used so you can see how you can use it in your own plane for an overview of writing modal chord progressions click the link in the top right corner of this video and it will take you to another video on channel that is an overview of writing modally or modal chord progressions rather so you don't need to do that now you can understand what we're going to cover in today's video so stay here with me but bookmark that one because it'll be a good one to further your understanding okay let's get into it lydian is the fourth mode of the major scale and we're going to have a look at F lydian here to explain this if we look at F lydian it is the fourth mode of C major okay if we count up from c d e f is the fourth note F Lillian is the mode is a mode of C major okay and what we mean by that is that F lydian and C major have the same notes however they are not the same key or the same sound because the emphasis when we play an F lydian is put on the F note that's the tonic and that changes everything versus C being the tonic when we are playing C major so same notes but different sound and I'll link to another video in the top right corner here that takes you to a video on my channel that gives you an overview of the modes okay and that will help further broaden your understanding so you can sort of bookmark that one two to watch after this lydian is a major mode if we compare that to its relative major scale sorry relative I mean it's parallel major scale parallel meaning the major scale that also has f is the root that's F major of course if we compare it have a look at how they compare F major F G A B flat c d e f f lydian f g a b c d e f so what is the point of difference the B okay F lydian has a b and so if we look at it in comparison to the parallel major key it's a major scale with a sharp four that is what lydian is okay so in this case it's F major with a sharp full B and that b is the characteristic note I briefly mentioned in the introduction to this video that is the heart of the sound of lydian now to understand any key or to better understand any key I should say we want to harmonize the key we want to build chords within the key so if we do that with f lydian what you find is that we get F major we get a G minor off the second sorry we get a G major on the second degree we get an A Minor third we get a b a half diminished off four five chord is C the six chord is D Minor the seven chord B minor and then we're back to F you would think one note difference doesn't make that big a deal right or one note doesn't really make that big a difference between two keys well it it does it affects it very much because it changes three of the seven chords in the key so it almost changes half the chords just that one note because if we have a look at F major harmonized okay you see on the screen there you can see we have F G minor a minor B flat C D Minor e half diminished F now if we raise all those notes oh sorry not all those notes if we raise the B flat B as we do to get lydian it changes three of the chords G minor now becomes G major and the B flat four chord now becomes B half diminish in lydian and the seven chord becomes a minor in lydian not E minor seven flat five or E half diminished if you like so it does change the landscape they are both major sounds but lydian is different to Major and it's actually brighter as bright as major is lydian is brighter again as we're going to hear okay so a couple of chord progressions uh as examples of progressions using the lydium mode so I mentioned a couple of times now about that characteristic note that's the all-important sharp four in the case of lydian now when you're writing a modal chord progression you want to include chords that have that characteristic note in them not only because if you only use calls with the characteristic no doubt a lydian you'd be restricted to three chords we don't want that but at the same token we don't want to write a chord progression or create a chord progression that doesn't use a chord that has a b note in it otherwise we could be in F major okay we'd need more information if you like that being the case of very very common um lydian sort of Vamp if you like is simply to play a one to a two chord okay one major to two major that in in the case of F lydian that would be our f [Applause] one cord to the two G [Music] back to the one chord end [Music] [Applause] and the g okay it's just a little linear bam okay and that's in lydian we can tell that's lydian and not F major because of the G the two chord because it's G and it's got the D note in there okay that's why we know it's lydian not ionian ionian being the modal name for just F major the other thing that you can do is you can bring the characteristic note in to the chord if it's not there already the F chord does not have a b note in it so when I play that chord it could be you know just that chord on its own we don't know if it's F major or F lydian we could assume one over the other but we don't really know until we have more information now something we could do to make it definite one way or the other is to bring in the B so I've just I'm playing like a bar chord here but I'm using my thumb over the top so I can then easily add the B note so I've got this out chord and then if I take my first finger off it brings in the open B string and there's the sharp four so there's that lydian sound right hear that we'll hear it in some songs shortly but hear that you know just that bright sort of uh Wonder or mystical sort of floaty sound these are all sort of adjectives if you like that I've heard that people use before for lydian and it's it's ones that I would agree with myself that I I think it sound has that sort of sound about it right so you can bring it into the chord if it's not already there and that makes that like an F sharp uh sorry not enough sharp an F major sharp 11 chord if I include the top string e it's sort of really more an F major seven that's what the E does with the B which we could consider a sharp 11. okay so I'm going to write a little chord progression here that uses that chord to a C Major seven [Music] E minor seven and the g right just a little bit of a longer progression so that's the f with that b added to C Major seven [Music] E minor seven thank you and the g and I'll finish on the head okay so the first song I want to have a look at or the first little excerpt from a piece of music is one that you'll know if you're a Star Wars fan and that is Yoda's Theme so I remember I mentioned about film composers lydian is throughout many many films you'll be surprised how often you hear the Lydia mode in film scores it's just got that awe and that wonder and you know bright uplifting sound if you like Yoda's Theme okay it's in C lydian so remember we said lydian is a major scale with a sharp four so let's just reinforce this first so if we're looking at Sea lydian it's going to be a C major scale with sharp four so the notes in C lydian will be C D E F sharp g a b and then C the octave if we harmonize the scale we always get the same chords when we harmonize any lydian scale okay so again we get major chords off the two of the one and the two sorry we get C and D then we get E minor F sharp half diminished three of the four chords three then the four chord five quarters Major G then six and seven a minor B minor and then the octave again C okay so Yoda's Theme is based on the one and two chord the two major chords or two of the major chords in the key so in that case it's C and D okay and we get the the melody and it goes something like this it's just gonna be a little rough version here okay this is no complete Arrangement but just to give you the sound of lydian foreign [Music] so what's happening there is you got this C and then it goes to D and there's that all important F sharp note right and it's actually a d with a c in the bass so we're pedaling the C note throughout this as well and that's very common to do with modal chord progressions is to Pedal the tonic across the chord progression so here we've got this C to the D the C still in the base back to C D with C again from Melody no and see once more and then we get D Minor with AC and then C Major seven okay another example also in C lydian is a song by REM called man on the moon and it's more the verse of this song it then tends to sort of go into perhaps G major or something like that but the verse of the song is NC lydian so it's based again on the one and the two chords so remember I said that's a very common little Vamp that's used in lydian so it's kind of like uh it's got the C then d so you've got c d and c okay so if you know that song you should know you should recognize that hopefully okay another example of the Lydia mode in action this tune is a song by Pearl Jam called oceans of the album 10. it's actually moving between two lydian keys okay so we don't necessarily have to stay in just the one key within a song we can move between modes if you like within a single song it's probably not as common but it certainly does happen so in this song Let's see we are going to be playing in C lydian so you come see lydian again but we also then will move to D lydian so if we have a look at D lydian because we haven't yet then again remember it's a major scale with a sharp four so D lydian D Major D E F sharp if we're sharp four G becomes G sharp then of course we have a b c sharp and d and that gives us the chords D E F sharp minor G sharp diminished a B minor C sharp minor and D so it's always the same chords when you harmonize the Lydia mode you'll always get that order so we get in the verse it's like based on this D chord to a C sharp suspended to C sharp okay so we'll let this D say sharp suspended stay sharp okay that's basically what's happening in the verse of the song and then we'll do that a couple more times I guess set that up okay so D C sharp and then C lydian comes in here that sound that lydian sound sort of bands on this chord and then Eternal shift to D lydian here it is and up just for peace I think so you gotta like your D it's all d lydian foreign [Music] just to break that down a little bit we had that that little part there which is near the hill or there just the D to the C sharp but then when it bring in this c chord is doing what I did in the progression earlier it's bringing in the sharp for us adding it to the chord here's the C it's actually C Major seven and the F sharp being played with my first finger on the second fret of the first string okay sound sharp four so we don't see lydian right singing it whatever over the top here and that's the D and then the there's the sharp four there in that chord the G sharp on Top Sharp four of D so there's that lydian sound again it's also a diminished fifth in this chord and then it goes up to like a D major seven back to d c that's that's fine that's c chord and then back to the D again okay but there's that lydian sound that's Oceans by Pearl Jam worth checking out okay and finally I wanted to throw in just a little excerpt from an original of mine that I wrote a few years back and uh it's in well at least this part of the tune is in a lydian so what would a lydian have you know be an a major scale with a sharp four what does that give us a b c sharp D sharp instead of d a major would have D so D sharp E F sharp G sharp a and as it has all along it gives us major chords for A and B the one in the two and then we get C sharp minor for three D sharp half diminished or minus seven flat five for the four chord the five chord is Major e and the sixth and seven are minor chords F sharp minor G sharp minor and then a and in this introduction to the tune I'm playing an a chord then I'll to the two chord B then notice I'm keeping the a base there so it's a slash chord thing again like the Yoda's Theme did okay and it's a very modal thing to do where you keep the tonic pedaling or plane in the base while you play the other chords on top so I've got the one chord of a lydian then the two chord P major and that's the D sharp right there then I go to this D Minor this sort of thing which is a D Minor with an a in the bass and then I go back to an a chord here just a different inversion now you might think hang on D Minor where's that coming from that's not in a lydian it's not even in a major well the answer to that is that it's a burrowed chord from the parallel minor key okay which is a minor so if you want to learn about burrow chords I'll link to that in the top right corner as well and you can check out a video I've done on my Channel all about borrowed chords very cool concept that will add a lot of sound cool sounds to your progressions but that one there it's the a one more time then B with the a in a bass D minor and that's of Wonder and that real beautiful sound again right if you like this video then you'll love this free ebook I've created for you in my jazz concepts for acoustic guitar series simply titled block chords in this ebook you learn the three main block code types for your guitar playing and how to create great music with them I also show you how to best visualize these shapes on your guitar so you never forget them it's as easy as changing one single note in each block chord shape you also learn a system for easily relating the block chord shapes to each other all over the fretboard so you can play any chord you like in any position with ease so click the link below in the description of this video and download your free copy of the ebook audio Jazz concepts for acoustic guitar block chords let me know in the comments what acoustic guitar topics you'd like to see covered in future videos let me know about the Lydia mode do you use it do you have other songs you can suggest that are in the Lydia mode anything you want to offer with MO mode the Lydia mode I'd love to hear from you don't be shy drop us a line if you like this video then hit the like button and if you haven't already subscribe to the channel and of course hit the all important notification Bell button so YouTube can tell you when I've released a new video this is Simon candy from acoustic guitar lessonsonline.net as always thank you for watching this video I really appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Acoustic Guitar Lessons

Views: 2,764

Keywords: how to play lydian chord progressions on guitar, lydian chord progressions guitar, lydian mode, guitar modes, modal harmony, modal chord progression, modal chords, understand modes, modes explained, lydian chord progression, joe satriani, steve via, pearl jam, cadential chords, characteristic chords, guitar theory lesson, guitar mode lesson, guitar mode tutorial, modal progression tutorial, acoustic guitar lessons online, acoustic guitar videos, simon candy

Id: Lq_6P07IBPo

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Tue May 02 2023