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Phrygian Mode

Lesson 24 from: Music Theory Essentials: Chords, Scales and Modes

Tomas George

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Lesson Info

24. Phrygian Mode

<b>In this lesson, you will learn about the Phrygian mode.</b>
Next Lesson: Lydian Mode

Lesson Info

Phrygian Mode

Frig, this is the third mode. So for C major, we'd be playing the third note. So the same notes of C major, but just rooting around this third note. So it just be these white notes. But starting on E so we have EFG ABC de and there are a few different ways we can actually work out this frig in mode. So the easiest is to just start the major scale on the third. However, we can turn a major scale into a Phrygian scale. So let's just use C major for an example. So let's just change the C major into ac Frigid. So we know that this is the third note. One way we could do it is just count down three notes from CCB A. No, it wouldn't be a major because a major has a C#, it'd actually be a flat major. So it'd be the notes of a flat major starting on AC if you don't know the notes of a flat major, we can actually use this other pattern to work out what C frig could be. So for a major scale, what we do is we flatten the second, the 3rd 6th and 7th. So the second here will be ad flatten this to uh...

D flat. In this case, A C# on this digital audio workstation, it does say at C# there is actually ad flat because the key signature A flat uses flats instead of sharps. And then we flatten the third, this E to A E flat and then the 6123456, this A to an A flat and the seventh, this B to A B flat. So that's how we can change a major scale into a phrygian mode. The other way is to actually change the minor scale. So to change a minor scale into a Frisian mode, all we need to do is flatten the second. So sometimes it's easier to change a minor scale into a mode rather than a major scale. But that's the pattern for both of them. So to change a major scale into a Frisian scale, you have to flatten the second, the third, the sixth and the seventh. And to change a minor scale into a Frisian mode or Frisian scale, you have to flatten the second. So sometimes it can be easier thinking of a minor and all of these modes are actually just changed by one note apart from the Lydian scale, which has changed by two and the Locrian scale, which is also changed by two, the rest of them were just changing either a major or a minor scale by one note or the other way is to just think of the scale but three notes down, let's just choose a frig, for example. So a frig will have the same notes as F major. But starting on an A, if you notice there, there was a B flat. So it's very similar to a minor. However, we just flatten the second. That's all you need to think about for a fri in flatten the second. So next, we're gonna have a look at Lydian.

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