How To Write Lydian Mode Melodies

the lydian mode has a floaty dream like brightness that is elevated beyond the standard major scale this particular sound isn't used a lot in Popple Rock but will be recognizable from the huge amount of film scores and soundtracks that use it if you want to write a lydian mode Melody then you need to understand the notes that go into the lydian mode the major scale is an excellent point of comparison for all other scales and modes if I label the major scale also known as the ionium mode with the scale degrees 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 then the lydian mode would have the scale degrees 1 2 3 sharp four five six and seven when writing lydian mode Melodies you want to try and highlight the notes that create a uniquely lydian sound in this case it is very obvious which note this is the only note of difference with the major scale is the sharp four let's look at an example now to explore the mode further see lydian has the notes C D E F sharp G A and B you make sure that the sharp four note is critical for the lydian sound the third note is also important because it indicates that this is a major sounding scale here's a very simple Melody that highlights the third and sharp fourth notes E and F sharp [Music] thank you you want to focus on these notes to bring out the lydian flavor but what else can you do to achieve this if you play notes on the strong beat then they are felt more and stand out in a 4-4 time signature with four beats in a bar this would be beats one and three with the first beat being the strongest listen to the following example in bars one and two the three and sharp four notes E and F sharp are on weak beats in the second half they fall on strong beats one and three [Music] lydian is an interesting mode that can cause a few problems for songwriters this is because it is harmonically unstable 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 slash ionian has the notes G A B C D E and F sharp it's unstable because the raised fourth and the tonic or first note of the scale create a tritone tritones are a series of three whole note intervals that are found in diatonic scales tritones create tension that wants to resolve to the next stable interval in a typical major scale the tritone is between the fourth and seventh scale degrees this tritone resolves perfectly to the major scales first and Fifth Scale degrees the two most stable notes of the scale however because lydian's tonic note is part of the tritone the only resolution you get is when the fourth scale degree moves up to the Fifth Scale degree here's the tritone notes in c lydian c F sharp followed by the fifth note G [Music] this creates a partially Resolute sound creating an open floating sense of mystery that never entirely feels resolved you may have noticed in the first two examples I avoided this fifth note let's look at a melody in C lydian with this note involved Listen to How it draws the ear towards it [Music] the last example showed you how important the tonal Center of lydian Melodies is it can easily begin to feel like you are in the major scale with the fifth note as its first note this is because it provides strong resolution and a feeling of being the home or tonic always be mindful of this note if you are trying to create a distinctly lydian Melody if in doubt you can avoid it entirely when creating Melodies it is also important to consider the shape of the pattern Melodies can move downwards or upwards in small steps or big leaps balancing the movement or shape of the melody is another important part of creating and maintaining interest look out for the leaps and steps in this lydian example [Music] Melodies don't live in isolation they have a strong relationship with Harmony or in other words chord progressions let's now look at how this relationship Works a Melody can be written from two broad approaches you can write the melody first and then fit chords to the melody or you can write the chords first and then the melody the second approach is the most common probably because it is easy to strum chords on a guitar or play them on a piano and then sing along if you look at a lot of popular songs you'll see how the chords directly influence the melody with the choice of notes if you have an existing lydian key chord progression you can start with this and create a Melody for it the easiest way to build a Melody from chords is just to use chord notes each chord will be constructed with several notes and whilst that chord is playing we can use these notes to create a Melody for example a basic lydian chord progression alternates from one to two in the key of C lydian these chords would be C major and D major C major has the notes c e and G whilst D major has the notes d f sharp and a in the next example I'll construct a Melody using only these chord tones whilst the chords play pay particular attention to how the notes E F sharp and G sound here [Music] now I'll use the same chord progression but instead of the chord notes I will use the other four notes from the C lydian mode for our Melody [Music] the chord note Melody feels really safe and if you place these notes on the strong beats in the bar it feels even safer notes from outside of the chord sound tensor and unsettled the level of tension depends on several factors if it's in the scale of the key then it will have some tension with different levels within this and then if you want great attention you can reach out for chromatic or alien notes writing a Melody is a balancing act building up tension and then resolving it by selecting these different notes something you may have seen in songs is the use of borrowed chords this is where chords from a parallel key are used in the current key the parallel key has the same root or tonic note so with our examples in the key of C lydian we could borrow from C major C minor C mixolydian Etc this introduces chromatic notes to the song that are outside of the existing key these tense alien notes can be very noticeable in your Melodies but as discussed earlier if we use chord notes then they feel safer look at the following example with the chords one two minor two two the minor 2 chord which D Minor here has been borrowed from the parallel major Key C major it has one note different from the D major chord this is the flat third note which is f i will play this outside note over the chord I'll also repeat the melodic phrase from the previous bar that is heard over the major two chord changing a single note in a repeated phrase like this can really draw the ear to the change creating something that feels the same but is different [Music] this has been an example of modal mixture or modal interchange these are just other terms for describing what I have done mixing chords and notes from parallel modes scales of course you don't have to use the chromatic notes over the borrowed chord if you don't want to but be mindful that you may create tension use your chord tones to create safety and see how it sounds in the next example I shift down the second part of the phrase over the minor 2 chord without using chromatic notes also listen to how I hold the a note across the chord change from bar 3 to 4. both of these chords have an a note so this creates a pleasing sound [Music] in another video on the channel I created the chords for a song in the key of C lydian this will be linked at the end of this video I've written a Melody for it using some of the techniques and ideas discussed earlier the melody starts in the verse over a borrowed D minor chord this chord introduces an F note which I played to highlight the minor sound much like I did in an example earlier on this provides a nice step down to the E note which is part of the next A minor chord then there is another step from E to D over the G chord the verse avoids the one called C major entirely focusing the ear towards the G major chord as such I use the G note in the melody to provide that resolution I talked about earlier this makes this part of the song Feel settled in the G major key you'll see when you get to the chorus that the song will take a more lydian turn some notes are held over chord changes to provide an interesting sound the first four bar verse section ends with an f note to complement the underlying dominant seventh chord I broadly repeat the melody again for the next four bars the target notes remain the same but there's a bit of variation into the higher registers in the first two bars with the introduction of the G note to further emphasize the G major feel this time I end on the F sharp note which is part of the changed G Major Seventh chord this will later lead into the much more lydian chorus the verse repeats again with the intro before the chorus comes in the melody becomes much more lydian focused than the chorus as do the chords you can see the notes begin to focus heavily on F sharp and E the sharp four and third notes that have featured throughout this video listen to how there is a shift in feel and sound here a rising nature in the chord progression is matched by a rising Melody up to the B note the first four bars also exclusively feature chord notes cementing the feeling of home and safety the second four bars follow similar rhythmic patterns and use more chord tones some octave leaps feature over the a minor six chord to provide a bit of drama but as they are the chord root note it isn't too unsettling also note that no fifth note G features anywhere in the chorus even over the the G Major Seventh chord this is to maintain the lydian focus the first four bars then repeat again where a new Motif is introduced over the C and sharp 11 and d chord this provides a nice descending pattern towards the F sharp note again and the same Melody as earlier over the esus2 and E minor add 9 chords the chorus ends with an extra two bars of c and d The Melody here changes gears moving quickly between chord notes and non-chord notes to build towards the E note that features in the outro's first chord follow along listen to The Melody and then have a go at writing your own lydian Melody [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign about Melodies but there's a wide world of the lydian mode out there I've made a playlist just for you right here so make sure you watch that next and improve your lydian knowledge today

Channel: Write A Song

Views: 4,648

Keywords: songwriting, songwriting explained, how to write a song, write a song, write a song now, chord progressions, music theory, lydian mode, how to write a melody, how to write a lydian melody, writing modal melodies, how write a melody for chords

Id: O7t3odhyFLA

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023