May Music Blog

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons,Violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. Now on to our discussion of the Lydian scale.

The Lydian Scale

The Lydian scale or mode as it is more commonly referred to is the 4th mode of the seven modes that are derived from ancient greek music. If you were to play a  C major scale starting on the 4th scale degree you would be playing F Lydian. The notes for the scale would be F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Yes this can be theorized by say this is just a C major scale starting on F.  When you put an F major chord behind the C major scale you now create the model sound of F Lydian. In this example if we think of F as our key center we could also say we are playing and F major scale with a raised or sharp fourth in it. Our notes would be F, G, A, B,C,D and E. Remembering that our key signature for F major is Bb, there for we now have B natural or a major scale with a sharp 4th. You now have again the Lydian scale. This scale is a perfect fit when you see a Major 7th chord with a sharp 4th. Vamp on a F major chord followed by  F Major 7th #4 or try F to G13.  Both progressions will give you A chance to test out your F Lydian scale.

The History of Lydian 

The name Lydian refers to the ancient kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia. In Greek music theory, there was a Lydian scale or “octave species” extending from parhypate hypaton to trite diezeugmenon, equivalent in the diatonic genus to the medieval and modern Ionian mode. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, this mode was described in two ways. The first way is the diatonic octave species from F up to F an octave above, divided at C to produce two segments. The second is as a mode with a final on F and an ambitus extending to F an octave higher and in which the note C was regarded as having an important melodic function. 

Who uses the Lydian Mode

The Lydian mode is defiantly a particular sound. You don’t hear it used as wide as you would the Mixolydian mode, but it still has its place. An example from the middle of the century is the scherzo movement of Carlos Chávez‘s Symphony No. 3. In the jazz world the Lydian mode inspired the works of people such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In popular music the passage beginning at the words “Much as I definitely enjoy solitude” in the song “Possibly Maybe” by Björk shows of the sound of the Lydian scale.The bass line in The Police‘s 1983 song “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” again incorporates the Lydian sound. Many Polish folksongs, including the mazurka, are in the Lydian mode; the first six notes of this mode were sometimes known as the “Polish mode”.

I hope after reading this you have a better Idea on what a mode is and in particular the Lydian mode. Please feel free to contact us and come in for a music lesson to learn all about the modes and anything else pertaining to music from one of our great instructor at the Colorado School of Music in Golden CO. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments. 

Thanks for reading!

Dean Cutinelli

Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, Violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. Students come from Denver, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood and even Evergreen to take lessons at the Colorado School of Music. Now on to our discussion of the Mixolydian scale.

The Mixolydian  Scale

The Mixolydian scale or mode as it is more commonly referred to is the 5th mode of the seven modes that are derived from ancient greek music. If you were to play a C major scale starting on the 5th scale degree you would be playing G Mixolydian. The notes for the scale would be G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Yes this can be theorized by say this is just a C major scale starting on G. The model sound can also be described as a major scale with a flatted 7th degree. Again If we take the notes G, A, B, C, D, E and F again you would have the G Mixolydian scale. This mode is great for improvising over a dominant 7th chord. The dominant 7th chord is comprised of a root major third, perfect 5th, and minor 7th interval. There for our notes for G7 are G, B, D and F. Try playing the G Mixolydian scale over the G7 chord to hear how well these fit together.

The History of Mixolydian 

The idea of a Mixolydian mode comes from the music theory of ancient Greece. The invention of the ancient Greek Mixolydian mode was attributed to Sappho, the 7th-century-B.C. poet and musician.^[1] However, what the ancient Greeks thought of as Mixolydian was very different from the modern interpretation of the mode.

Who uses the Mixolydian Mode

You can hear this scale used in traditional music, pop, rock, blues Jazz and classical music.  As we are discussing music it’s always best to listen to some different songs that incorporate this scale or sound in there music. A traditional song would be Old Joe Clark. In a classical setting Bach uses this sound in “Fughetta super: Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot” in G Major. In popular music give a listen to Clocks by Cold play. In All Blues by Miles Davis you can here it used in a blues context. 

I hope after reading this you have a better Idea on what a mode is and in particular the Mixolydian mode. Please feel free to contact us and come in for a music lesson to learn all about the modes and anything else pertaining to music from one of our great instructor at the Colorado School of Music in Golden CO. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments. 

Thanks for reading!

Dean Cutinelli

Improvising With The Pentatonic Scale

When it comes to improvising, the pentatonic scale is one of the most widely used scales. You hear it used from blues to jazz to country to heavy metal. I will be discussing some basic ways to get started on improvising with this scale.  

As a music teacher this is one of the first scales I teach, as it is the easiest to superimpose over chord changes. What makes this scale user friendly is that its comprised of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th scale degrees from the major scale. Leaving out the 4th and 7th degrees give the pentatonic scale its sound, which in turn usually makes this the easiest scale to start learning how to improvise with. The best way to start learning to improvise is to pick two chords from a key and play a simple 2 bar phrase. Record yourself doing this for 4 or 5 minutes. Then go back and start playing the pentatonic scale from the same key the chord progression is from over the chords. You can start out by playing 1/4 notes with the scale and progressing to 1/8 notes. Listen carefully to how each scale degree sounds over the chords. An example of this would be to play C to G with a 1/4 note rhythm. Your pentatonic scale notes would C,D,E,G and A. 

 Some easy improvising concepts are call-and-answer and repeating yourself. Call-and-answer can best be compared to a phone call. You call some one and say “hello this is so-and-so” and then you pause and let the other person respond. How this relates to improvising is if you play a group of notes and then pause and respond with another group of notes that compliment the first group of notes. You can use long or short phrases and your call-and-answers should usually be similar in length. Repeating yourself is just that. If you play something you like, play it again and even a third time. These two concepts are good starting techniques to get you going on your long journey of learning how to improvise. 

Please feel free to contact us to come in a learn all about  improvising and anything else pertaining to music from one of our great instructors at the Colorado School of Music in Golden CO. 

Thanks for reading!

Dean Cutinelli

info@coloradoschoolofmusic.com

303-526-9865

www.coloradoschoolofmusic.com