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Locrian Mode How to Use

Locrian: How to Use the Final Mode

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Locrian is our last musical mode, and by far the craziest one. If you’ve missed out on previous articles, check out all of the other modes here with Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Phrygian, Ionian, and Aeolian. Our last mode, Locrian, isn’t extremely useful as it sounds dissonant and somewhat unmusical. It’s rare to see it in the wild, with the exception of metal and some progressive rock. Still, it’s important to learn about it, plus you can impress your friends with your complete knowledge of modes!

 

A Quick Review:

As with our other explorations with modes, we’ll use the key of C Major to learn about Locrian. The notes in C Major are:

 

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

 

You may remember that each mode is a mode of C, or the key that you are using. We can use the same notes of C Major but simply start on a different scale tone to get the mode that we’d like to use. Locrian forms when we use the above notes but start and end on B. Therefore, the B Locrian scale looks like this:

 

B – C – D – E – F – G – A – B

 

How to Form Locrian:

If you’re intent on using Locrian while performing and improvising, it’s unlikely that you’ll have the luxury of playing it only in relation to C Major. Locrian is more closely related to the minor scale than the major scale. Let’s take a look at B Natural Minor and compare it to B Locrian. B Natural Minor is:

 

B – C# – D – E  – F# – G – A – B

 

Looking at both this scale and B Locrian, we can see that the Locrian scale is just a Natural Minor Scale with the second and fifth note lowered one half-step, or flatted. Using numbers, Locrian would look like this in relation to the Natural Minor Scale:

 

1 – flat2 – 3 – 4 – flat5 – 6 – 7 – 1

 

If you’re insistent on thinking through modes using the template of a Major Scale, we must compare Locrian to the B Major Scale:

 

B – C# – D# – E – F# – G# – A# – B

 

This is where things get messy – there are a lot of alterations that we need to make in order to arrive at B Locrian. From the perspective of the Major Scale, we must flat, or lower, the second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh notes. That looks like this:

 

1 – flat2 – flat3 – 4 – flat5 – flat6 – flat7 – 1

 

It’s a lot cleaner to think about Locrian in relation to the Natural Minor, as you can see!

 

Why is Locrian so Rare?

Frankly, to most people, Locrian sounds bad or wrong. This is mostly due to the flat five note in the scale. Western musical harmony relies heavily on the stability of the Perfect Fifth interval – it’s present in every Major and Minor chord. Most songs, especially in pop and rock, only use Major and Minor chords. Our ears are hardwired to hear that interval!

What’s more, the flatted fifth in Locrian forms a tritone. This is one of the most dissonant intervals in music and is responsible for forming the diminished chord. Locrian doesn’t have a Major or Minor chord as its root – it actually has a Diminished chord! It’s tricky, if not frequently impossible, to create a sense of musical resolution when home base is a Diminished chord. Musical harmony relies on a relationship of tension and release – how can we create that release when the very spot to which we are arriving is the most tense and dissonant sound of the scale? 

 

Conclusion:

Learning Locrian is important to round out your understanding of all of the musical modes, plus it’s a cool feather in your cap. Try to write a song or solo using Locrian and see what you come up with! It isn’t easy, but it can be done – maybe it will help you write the next big Metallica-esque solo!

In practice, the Musical Modes that are the most useful and intriguing to the ear are Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Ionian. You’ll remember that Aeolian and Ionian are just the Minor and Major scales, so that only leaves two unique Modes to explore for most of your musical flavor. Phrygian and Lydian are beautiful and awesome, but they lie just a little bit outside of the realm of “normal” to be palatable to a lot of listeners. Locrian is in another world of its own. Have fun exploring all of the Musical Modes, and thanks for learning with us! Stay tuned for future editions of the Knowledge Blog, and in the meantime, check out our other posts!

Lydian Scale How To Use

How to Use the Lydian Mode

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It’s almost December, and that means that there is only one month left to finish our series on Musical Modes! If you’ve missed the previous blog posts about it, get caught up at the following links: Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian. After today’s post on the lydian mode, we only have two more to go! (yes, I know there are three left, but trust me on this) You’re almost a musical master of modes! 

 

Lydian and Mixolydian are Cousins:

The most recent post in this series was all about Mixolydian. You’ll remember that Mixolydian is just a Major (Ionian) scale with the seventh note lowered. There’s just that one difference! Similarly, Lydian mode only changes one note from the major scale. This is easy to remember as their names are so similar, plus they have distinct tonal differences. Lydian, as we’ll soon learn, sounds bright and a bit otherworldly. I remember this because “Lydian” sounds exotic and maybe like the name of a planet from a distant galaxy. Mixolydian simply “mixes it up” by changing the note that is altered. Mixolydian sounds much darker and more brooding than Lydian.

 

How to Make the Lydian Mode:

Let’s start with our good ‘ol C Major scale:

 

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

 

To make Lydian, we just have to raise the fourth scale degree by one half step. That means that in C Major, the fourth note “F” will become “F#”.

 

The C Lydian scale is:

 

C – D – E – F# – G – A – B – C

 

Traditionally, the fourth scale degree is powerful and has a lot of weight when writing melodies and harmonies. The alteration in Lydian mode really sounds surprising and makes the listener pay attention! You probably know that half-step relationships are also powerful and can pull the melody of the piece into new and exciting areas. The half-step between the Lydian F# and the G in the above scale is cool and unique – it pulls us towards G effortlessly and makes a lot of Lydian pieces sound like they are floating, ethereal, or happy!

 

Harmonies in Lydian:

Some modes suit harmony writing better than others, and Lydian is a flagship example. Let’s look at the normal diatonic chords of C Major without any alteration. Remember that these are only the triads, and we aren't considering extended harmonies yet. This means that you don't need to worry about 7ths or anything further. Those C Major triads are:

 

C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am – Bdim – C

 

Now, if we change our scale to C Lydian, the chords will look like this (due to the raised fourth):

 

C – D – Em – F#dim – G – Am – Bm – C

 

Immediately, we can see some cool and exciting things happening. The biggest and most “Lydian-sounding” change is with the second chord. The Major 2 chord (II) is the quintessential sound of Lydian, especially when it is put up against the 1 chord (I). We still have a diminished chord in the row, much like any standard major key, but it has changed position. That F# diminished gives even more pull towards the dominant chord (V), or G major. This is a useful tool for pivoting with key changes or giving extra finality and resolution to the piece’s harmony. Lastly, the last three chords in the row (Am, Bm, C (or vi, vii, I)) can be used in series for a medieval or mellow sound – a pleasing progression with little pull that drifts listlessly through the music.

 

Examples of Songs in Lydian:

You may be surprised to learn that there are A LOT of these! My personal favorite is Man on the Moon by REM because it is in C Lydian. It uses all of the chords and tricks that we outlined already, and it’s easy to follow. The verses are only C to D, hammering home that unique Lydian sound and contributing to the cool imagery of being in space.

 

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is another excellent example. Much like Man on the Moon, Dreams uses the Lydian Major I, Major II chord progression throughout the verse.

 

Jane Says, the surprising acoustic jam by Jane’s Addiction, is also Lydian. It only uses the I and II chords for the entire song! Lastly, Human Nature by Michael Jackson boasts heavy but intricate use of the Lydian II chord throughout the verses and choruses.

 

Conclusion:

I hope that this post has given you the knowledge and confidence to experiment with Lydian in your soloing and writing! It’s a lovely mode, and it’s easy to throw that #4 note in there to spice up your sound. Stay tuned for the last two posts in this series on our Knowledge Blog, and until then, keep jammin’!

mixolydian mode

How to use the Mixolydian Mode

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Welcome back to another round of Modes with Songbirds! So far, I’ve published blogs on the Dorian Mode and my personal favorite, the Phrygian Mode. Check them out if you haven’t already! This post is all about Mixolydian, a cool workhorse of a Mode with a distinct flavor. It’s also quite easy compared to the others!

 

Quick Status Check:

Let’s take a pause and see the progress that we’ve made (and where we still have to go). There are seven different musical Modes, and each one correlates with a note of a normal seven-note scale. Let’s pretend that we are in C Major. The seven notes of that scale are:

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C (but we don’t count this C – it’s just a higher octave of the first C)

Using all of the fancy Mode names, the Modes correlate with the scale in this order. Modes that we have discussed in blog form are in bold:

Ionian – Dorian – Phrygian – Lydian – Mixolydian – Aeolian – Locrian

Now, keep in mind that Ionian is just the Major Scale as we know and love it. There aren’t any tricks. Likewise, Aeolian is the natural minor scale. We’ll discuss the different types of minor scales in a future post, but you probably are already familiar with some form of Aeolian. That means that, after this post, there are really only two unique Modes left – Lydian and Locrian!

 

All About Mixolydian:

Here’s the meat and potatoes of this post: The Mixolydian Mode. Like all other modes, Mixolydian borrows the same notes and accidentals (sharps and flats) of its parent scale. If we are playing in C Major, and want to use the Mixolydian scale that already lives in C, we would start our scale on the note G. All we have to do is play the notes of the C Major scale from G until we hit the next G. Those notes would be:

G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

Take a second to try this on a nearby instrument. You’ll likely hear the strange note right away – we are so used to hearing a normal Major Scale that the “weird” F natural note jumps out! Our ears want to hear F#, but Mixolydian surprises us.

 

The Theory of Mixolydian:

Mixolydian Mode is very closely related to the Major Scale. All you have to do is find a Major Scale and then lower the seventh note, or leading tone, by one half step. In the above example, the G Major Scale was transformed into Mixolydian by lowering the normal F# to F natural. This applies to every major key.

For example, C Mixolydian would be:

C – D – E – F – G – A – Bb – C (notice the Bb, not B natural!)

 

How to Mixolydian:

Given that Mixolydian is just one note away from the Major Scale, it’s extremely easy and fun to “flirt” with that special seventh note. For example, you could use the F natural as a chromatic passing tone in a G Major solo. You can also over-accent the lowered seventh to give your performance a bluesy, folk-like feel.

Mixolydian works perfectly with songs in Major Keys. It’s just enough to make your listeners’ ears perk up and pay attention to what you’re saying!

You can also lean hard into the lowered seventh note and write songs with a lowered seventh chord. For example, in the key of G Major, the normal diatonic chords are as follows:

G – Am – Bm – C – D – E – F#dim – G

Using Mixolydian, the diatonic chords look like this:

G – Am – Bm – C – D – Em – F – G

Whoa, F Major instead of F# diminished? That’s something exciting! Using this chord immediately sounds like folk and bluegrass. It’s not as dramatic as some other, more exotic, chord substitutions, but it’s instantly recognizable and sounds good to every listener. It’s unique and powerful, but not too out-of-the-box.

 

A Popular Example of Mixolydian:

Take a listen to Clocks, the huge hit song by Coldplay. This song is actually in Mixolydian! The main piano lick is formed around the following chords:

Eb – Bbm – Fm

The song is in Eb Major, and we would expect to hear a Bb Major chord as the fifth diatonic chord. However, Clocks uses the minor five, the third of which is the note Db. That is the flat seventh note in the Eb Major scale – or in other terms, the secret spicy Mixolydian note!

Note: The minor four chord substitution is quite common and alluring in most music. This is NOT derived from Mixolydian. The Mixolydian substitution is the minor five chord.

Try It Out!

Mixolydian is a great Mode with very little risk. That lowered seventh tone doesn’t sound bad or like a mistake in most instances, and even if it sounds a little funky, repetition legitimizes. Try out Mixolydian the next time that you improvise a solo or write your own material! Stay tuned for future blog posts that discuss the remaining modes that we have yet to explore, and until then, read the other posts on our Knowledge Blog!