How To Write Lydian Mode Songs : The Ultimate Guide

in this Ultimate Guide I will show you how to write a lydian mode song I'll start by discussing chord progressions their Melodies and finally riffs you don't have to write a song in this order but it provides a logical framework for teaching and is easy to follow throughout the video I will create an entire lydian mode song this will allow you to see how the parts of the song work together as a whole after watching this entire video you'll have everything you need to write a complete lydian mode song let's begin with chord progressions 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 pop or Rock but will be recognizable from the huge amount of film scores and soundtracks that use it listen to how it sounds here with the C lydian scale you can hear that c lydian is a major sounding scale with a major third note the most important note in lydian is the sharp fourth this is the only note that separates the scale from major slash ionian it provides the uplifting brightness that lydian is known for here are the chords that are found in the c lydian key with the scale notes that go into each chord c major D major E minor F sharp diminished G major a minor and B minor these are the diatonic chords in the c lydian key that is chords that are made purely with notes from the C lydian scale C lydian is a good key for guitar players because it has lots of chords that can be played as simple open chords it is also the most common lydian key in popular music you can see that each of the diatonic chords has a Roman numeral above it lowercase indicates minor chords and uppercase major chords this helps you to understand chord progressions as the Roman numerals can apply to any lydian key and simply indicate the function of the chords let's start building some lydian mode chord progressions now now and look at how you can write your own 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 the reason this simple chord progression is strongly lydian is because it takes us from the one chord which anchors the key and enter 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 but lydian has a big problem as a key for your songs it is harmonically unstable every mode has a major scale of the same notes for example C lydian and G major slash ionian 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 also known as the tonal Center will draw the listener's ear to 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 one to five uses C major and G major in G major this would be four to one this instability means that the use of the V chord in lydian can very easily begin to sound like the tonal Center and pull your progression into major listen to how this sounds with the following example foreign foreign you can also run into a similar thing with the three chord in our key of C lydian the three chord is E minor here are the chords in the key of E natural minor slash aeolian you can see that once again it has the same chords as C lydian in this case our tonic one chord c major is the sixth chord of the E minor key and the other important lydian chord the two chord D major is the seven chord if we introduce the E minor chord to our progression then it strongly feels like this is the tonal Center the ear is instantly drawn to this listen to the effect in the next example [Music] thank you this lydian instability can be considered in other ways as well it's unstable because the raised fourth and the tonic or first note of the scale creates a tritone tritones are a series of three whole no 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 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 we get is when the fourth scale degree moves up to the Fifth Scale degree this creates a partially Resolute sound creating an open floating sense of mystery that never entirely feels resolved this fifth note features in the three and five chords we explored which go somewhere to explain why they feel like the tonic when they are featured you can of course use this confusion to your advantage if you like the ambiguous nature of this then use it in your song and don't worry about it here's an example with both of these chords and also a first version 2 chord where do you think the tonal Center is here foreign chord has the sharp four note in it making it another strong lydian chord it also has two notes in common with the two chord in the next example I'll use it with the one and two to begin with this could be considered a strictly lydian section then I'll introduce the three chord listen to how this interrupts the tonal Center and draws our ear elsewhere foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we've seen the problems with the lydian mode but what can we do with our chord progressions to overcome this the easiest thing to do is to avoid the three and five chords this will avoid the use of the fifth note in the scale apart from in the tonic one chord but assuming you want to use a wider range of chords what else can you do you can use the tonic note as a pedal note that is played as the lowest note in every chord this will utilize inverted chords and other slash chords this will constantly Drive the ear back to the tonic of lydian and not allow it to stray so easily elsewhere if you're playing in a bad situation you could get the bass player to constantly come back to the tonic note over all chords in order to create a similar effect listen to this in the next example the first eight bars have a standard approach on repeat the bass is playing a constant C note how do you think this affects the tonal center of the piece foreign [Music] foreign [Music] you can try is by adding the sharp four note to your chords this will create a range of chord types in your progressions let's explore this in our key of C lydian the sharp fourno is F sharp we know that F sharp diminished has the note in it and so does D major and B minor but what about the other chords add F sharp to the one chord and you get an add sharp 11 chord the three chord can be played as a sus2 or an add 9 chord to introduce the sharp full the five chord can be played as a Major Seventh and the sixth as a minor sixth I'll repeat the next example twice once with standard Triads and then the second with the F sharp note added to the chords listen to the difference how do you feel it affects the tonal Center thank you [Music] foreign [Music] s actually use lydian will only use it for part of the song you can now understand the reason for this but how would this work in practice the simplest and most obvious move is between lydian and the major scale that begins on the fifth note of your chosen lydian scale this is because you use the same scale notes and same chords and therefore the change will be seamless you just need to make sure you have distinct lydian feeling sections for example thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] another simple approach is to use the parallel major and lydian keys they have the same tonic note as we saw the only difference is the sharp fourth note and subsequently three chords you could use the main lydian chord progression one to two to generate a lydian fill and then move back to the standard major progressions this change is nice when you go from the major two to minor 2 the single note change between these chords is the third to Flat third F sharp to F in C lydian this is the most important note of the chords so can clearly be heard here listen to it in this example foreign [Music] you could also look at this from the other end and just have a major key song that brings in the major two chord as a borrowed chord this can be called modal mixture or modal interchange this is extremely common in lydian songs for the reasons I've outlined in this video this just scratches the surface of what you can do with lydian but hopefully will inspire you to experiment with this interesting mode I'll now put some of what we've discussed into a full song example there are a few things to note before we begin the song utilizes first and second inversions these are used to change the bass notes in the chords and create movement and interest first inversions have a six next to the Roman numeral second inversions have a six and a four it starts with an intro slash Bridge section that is repeated through the song This is deliberately ambiguous using chords that feature in both C major and C lydian as such The Listener will feel like it is a C major progression until the major two chord at the end of the intro also listen for the pace of chord changes the first chord lasts a beat and a half whilst the second is heard for two and a half beats this provides a nice rhythmic feel that repeats through the song This intro will link into the verse to begin with and later the chorus the verse starts with a minor 2 chord from the c major key as explored earlier this provides a nice transition from the major two chord in the intro the verse then avoids the one called C major entirely this plays with expectations again drawing the year to the 5 chord g major as the new tonal Center this shows you how you can experiment with and mix modes in your songs all that matters is how it sounds to you I also use the diminished IV chord for the first time here it is played as a minor 7 flat 5 or half diminished chord providing a subtle sound than the full diminished this provides a strong pull to the G major chord further suggesting its new role as the tonic this whole thing is repeated twice the only thing that changes is the final beat of each four bar sequence first up it uses G dominant seventh this is again borrowed from the c major key and would typically draws back to the one tonic chord it is used to surprise the listener here on the second repeat we use the G Major Seventh chord this has the sharp four lydian note in it to hint at the lydian field to come in the chorus before we get to the chorus the intro and verse are played again the chorus is one long extended section it is designed to be much more lydium focused revealing and uplifting brightness that separates us from the verses and intro listen for the change this brings it uses the one chord with an added sharp 11th or sharp fourth note pairing this with the standard two chord is designed to evoke lydian brightness other chords that feature also use the F sharp note in them to highlight this sound some are played as inversions again this is to put the F sharp note in the bass to further highlight them the chorus has an unusual 14 bar length this is designed to sound like it interrupts the song Breaking an established four bar repetition of sections it leads into a reprise of the intro chords as an outro before ending on the C add Sharp 11 chord is this in G major is it in C lydian or C major does it even matter have a go at experimenting with lydian in your own songs and see how you get on [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] how to write a melody for your song 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 of the scale degrees one two three four five six and seven the nullidium mode would have the scale degrees one two three 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 saw 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] 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 of 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 creates 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 Triton notes in C lydian C and 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 and see 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 Lydia 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 the 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 broader 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 foreign now I'll use the same chord progression but instead of the chord notes I'll use the other four notes from the C Lydia 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 corn notes then they feel safer look at the following example with the chords one two minor two two the minor two chord which is 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] 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] foreign 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 is the G Major Field 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 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 CIA at 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 esus 2 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 foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign now it's time to talk about riffs a riff is a short repeated memorable musical phrase although strongly associated with rock music and the electric guitar a riff can feature in any genre and be played on any instrument the majority of riffs are between one and four bars in length and he longer can sound like a melody or solo all riffs are repeated this is an essential part of the Riff and how they hook themselves into the listener's mind you could also call them a motif that is a musical idea that repeats a riff can define a song the first thing you hear in many songs is the Riff and they are the core part of many massive hits riffs are like a whole song bundled up into a short repeatable package as such they are comprised of three main parts Rhythm Harmony and Melody I'll use the C lydian mode now to demonstrate some different riff ideas I'll present guitar tabs for the riffs but remember that these ideas can apply to any instrument or midi C lydian is a guitar friendly key in standard tuning you can play any of the open strings without being out of key as such it can open up all sorts of easy to play riff ideas is almost anything can be a riff but for ease I'm going to break them into a few categories here to help you think about different riff approaches the sound or genre that you are aiming for May dictate the rift style that you prefer as always trust your ear and go with it let's start with some interval-based riffs an interval is simply the distance between two notes intervals are the building blocks of chords and scales as such they are a great point to construct a riff ROM the bulk of guitar riffs are played on the lower three strings the E A and D strings have power and authority associated with bass notes as the bass generally defines the harmony above it denser strings also produce more volume because of this I'll focus on these lower registers in the example if you are working with a scale such as C lydian here you can experiment by playing two notes in the scale that create an interval you like the sound of once you find the interval you like then you can work on the rhythmic idea for your riff for example here is a simple riff using two notes in the C lydian scale C and F sharp this interval is a distance of three whole steps or six cm tones this is known as an augmented fourth interval or a tritone I'll play the interval and then develop the rhythm of the Riff so much of the Riff writing process is experimentation grab your instrument and have fun with it [Music] intervals can be played horizontally like we just saw this is what you would find in the melody or you can stack them vertically that is when both notes are played at the same time this is how chords are created in the next example I'll play notes from the C lydian mode at the same time listen to how this changes the sound each interval will have an open e note in it repeating a note like this in a riff is known as a pedal note I'll discuss this in more detail later look out again for the development of the Rhythm in this example you would have heard in the last example how important the rhythmic element was the rhythm of a riff is what really makes it unique a lot of riffs utilize syncopation to generate this rhythmic interest this is where the weak beats in the bar are accented rather than the usual strong beats for example in 4-4 time signatures there are four beats in a bar usually the strong beats are one and three and the weak beats two and four but if we turn this on its head then you create a syncopated rhythm and if you utilize notes that don't fall on any of the Beats then it will feel even more syncopated we've looked at some of the notes in the C lydian scale but what creates the lydian sound at the beginning of the video I showed you how the only point of difference between the major scale and the lydian mode is the sharp four note so this note is critical to the lydian brightness you also want to highlight that lydian is a major sounding scale this is heard through the use of the third note and also the root note of the scale so you know where the tonic or home is here's an example that highlights these notes c e and f sharp it starts with these three Keynotes with a hammer on from E to F sharp as the high point then it descends back down to C via d the root note C is the lowest in the Riff to highlight its role as the tonic 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 of the same notes for example see Legion 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 creates a tritone tritones are a series of three whole note intervals that are found in diatonic scales tritones create tension that want to resolve to the next stable interval you will have heard this in the first riff example in a typical major scale the tritone is between the fourth and seventh scale degrees this tritone resolves perfectly to the major scale's 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 and F sharp followed by the fifth note G foreign this creates a partially Resolute sound creating an open floating sense of mystery that never feels entirely resolved you may have noticed in the earlier examples I avoided this fifth note let's look at a riff and C Lydia now 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 riffs are it can easily begin to feel like you're 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're trying to create a distinctly lydian riff if in doubt you can avoid it entirely let's now talk about pedal note riffs a pedal note is one That Remains the Same usually low down in the arrangement whilst other notes or chords change above it this will usually use open E A and D strings on the guitar if the note doesn't sustain throughout the Riff it may also be referred to as a pedal point it will often be the root note of the relevant scale that is repeated to really anchor The Listener in the key of the song but it doesn't have to be so feel free to experiment if you've heard metal riffs with palm muted e strings throughout they are an example of this this might be one reason to try a drop tuning like Drop D to get a suitable open note to Pedal throughout your riff you saw an example earlier that had a pedal note here's one in C lydian that again uses the E open string but also the C and F sharp notes we want to Target now it's time for a classic riff component the power chord a favorite of rock and metal the power chord is a simple powerful element in many iconic riffs a power chord is actually just a perfect fifth interval so it relates back to the first two examples in this video power chords are often used with pedal notes that we discussed previously this is particularly prevalent in metal Rifts on guitar they are usually played as two note chords with the first and fifth or as a three note chord with the octave added above the fifth a simple starting point for generating power chord riffs is to use the notes in the relevant scale for your song and then using each note as a root note for a power chord as with other riffs the rhythmic element is almost more important than the actual chords being played here's an example in C lydian using power chords and other single note lines here [Music] [Applause] [Music] the power cord riff leads us nicely into the full-blown cord riff as the name suggests this is simply combining four chords into a riff this is where the lines between chord progression and riff can become blurred but as discussed earlier the Riff will be shorter and more rhythmically driven than the chord progression core base riffs are easy to have a go at just pick one or more chords from a key and start experimenting with the Rhythm for example here are the diatonic chords in the key of C lydian A simple and popular chord progression uses the one chord c major and the two chord D major let's take these chords as the basis of our riff you can use Simple chords like this but you are not limited different chord types can open up interesting sounds and on the guitar they can be the simple addition of taking away of a finger this can add rhythmic elements that help Elevate us beyond the chord progression in the next example I explore this idea by using major 7th and add 9 versions of c and d sus4 the rhythmic variations are short enough to feel like a riff and not a chord progression foreign foreign so far I've been using notes that are only in the Lydia mode but riffs don't need to be boxed in like this you can reach for any notes that you like the sound of this introduces the idea of modal mixture or modal interchange this is where you use notes from parallel scales within your riffs parallel scales have the same root note as the scale you are using for example we are using C lydian here so parallel scales would include C major C mixolydian and C harmonic minor amongst others a lot of riffs aren't considered in this level of detail and created more spontaneously I'd recommend going for this approach to begin with and just reach for notes and sounds that you like the short nature of a riff won't usually undermine the tonal Center of your song but you can also be more deliberate and Target certain chromatic notes I'll attempt this in the next example it's very similar to an earlier riff that targets the Key C Lydia notes E and F sharp this time I'll also utilize the chromatic F note to allow us to reach from F sharp to e in a descending half step nature foreign can come into the songwriting process at different times it could be that you create a great riff in isolation and this inspires you to write the rest of the song remember that they contain Rhythm Melody and Harmony this song DNA can be unpicked from the Riff and lead to Quick songwriting concentrate on the notes that are emphasized or stand out these will lead you to a suggested chord change you could also take an existing chord progression and turn this into a riff this might be by using chord notes or whole chords as we saw earlier or you could take a song Melody and use it for your riff inspiration this is particularly useful for finding rhythmic hooks for your riffs sometimes starting with some limitations can really help your Rift writing process as it Narrows down infinite possibilities to focus your attention this song utilizes first and second inversions these are used to change the bass notes in the chords and create movement and interest first inversions have a six next to the Roman numeral second inversions have a six and four it starts with an intro Bridge section that is repeated through the song This is deliberately ambiguous using chords that feature in both C major and C lydian as such the little will feel like it is a C major progression until the major two chord at the end of the intro also listen for the pace of chord changes the first chord lasts a beat and a half while the second is heard for two and a half beats this provides a nice rhythmic feel that repeats through the song I want a nice simple riff here to introduce the song and lead to the verse it uses chord notes that follow the rhythm of the chord changes this shows you how other parts of your song Can directly influence the Riff writing process it ends on an F sharp note played with an open a note this is because F sharp and a are in the D major chord in the first part of the first a chromatic F note is played in The Melody and in the underlying D minor chord so having the F sharp sound just before provides a nice half step movement have a listen to how the Riff sounds as well as the rest of the song I hope this will inspire you to have a go at writing your own lydian riffs [Music] [Music] thank you thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] you've learned how to write a lydian mode song but there's a world of songwriting out there watch the playlist on screen now to continue your songwriting Journey

Channel: Write A Song

Views: 3,590

Keywords: songwriting, songwriting explained, how to write a song, write a song, write a song now, chord progressions, music theory, lydian mode, lydian scale

Id: dGcixtPY-Lg

Length: 41min 39sec (2499 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 22 2023