In the tradition of the triangular bicycle wheel ....
.... or possibly the circular firing squad......
I've been at it again.
Mother said I'd go blind but I can't help myself. I keep messing around in F# phrygian dominant. Being based on harmonic minor, it has a fairly limited set of really usable chords if you stay diatonic. The main ones are F#7, Em7, and Gmaj7, but you can also make a Gm and of course a Bm(maj7) - it is after all a mode of B harmonic minor. Those aside you get two diminished chords and an augmented one. These need to be used with a little care if you want the result to be reasonably approachable to the average punter.
So what happens if I do something obvious, like a 2 - 5 - 1? First, what *is* a 2 - 5 - 1 in that mode? Is it even a relevant concept? I don't know. Let's just try a few things and see what happens.
The 2 is flat, so a straight diatonic "2 - 5 - 1" is Gmaj7 - Bm - F#. Or we can start with a Gm(maj7) or a straight G major or minor. For the 5 we can play Bm(maj7) and for the 1 we can play an F#7 if desired. All of these work, sort of, but none of them function anything much like a 2 - 5 - 1.
We know that ordinary 2 - 5 - 1s work because (among other reasons) they are a two pairs of chords each a perfect 4th apart - but our G - B - F# sequence is not. No wonder it doesn't work! (BTW, I also tried playing a Bm7 which is out of key but quite pleasant.)
OK, what if we play the *actual* 2 - 5 - 1 from the parent key? C# half-diminished - F#7 - Bm. Surprise surprise, it works exactly like a proper 2 - 5 - 1 (because it is one!) and (equally unsurprising) dumps us straight into B minor. We didn't want to do that! There is no escape: play those three chords in that order and you might as well tattoo "B minor" on your forehead. It's quite hard to get back. We want to stay in F# phrygian dominant, so scratch that one too.
Next I reasoned that intervals work both ways. In a normal 2-5-1 you start on the 2, go up a 4th to the 5, and go up another 4th to the root. Why can't we go backwards? If we start with Em, we can go *down* a 4th to Bm, and then down another 4th to end up on F#. And it works!
It doesn't sound or function like a 2-5-1, but it works quite well in its own way, and leaves us very clearly in F#, which is where we want to be. A variation is to use Em7 - the D note (m7th of E) repeats into the Bm (m3rd of
and pulls strongly back to the C# of the F# chord. I like that. This sequence is actually a 7 - 4 - 1, but this seems to be the phrygian dominant functional equivalent of a 2 - 5 - 1.
For completeness, what if we do the reverse - start in B minor and throw that same Em Bm F# sequence in? In that context it's a 4 - 1 - 5, and my ear says it can work either way: we can play it and stay in Bm, or use it as a bridge to F#.
(Mother is tapping on my door and asking what I'm doing in there. I'll have to go now.)
Comments
In the western musical keys system, with its arrangement of sharps and flats, as demonstrated by the C of 5ths and materialised through the construction of the piano, the position and distribution of the keys is brilliantly conceived such that all diatonic modes have a major 2nd and a perfect 5th, so that a proper 251 can be made for all of them - apart from the two darkest modes: Phrygian has a flat 2 major chord, and a diminished 5th: and Locrian has a flat 2nd and flat 5th. (Phrygian’s 251 is the genesis of the neapolitan 6th which is a very beautiful version of a 251).
Similarly to Phrgian, in PhrygDom you don’t have a major 2nd, the flat 2 chord is major, and the 5 chord is diminished, so first obvious choice would be b2-5(dim)-1. For F# PhrygDom that would be G - C#dim - F#. And because the C#dim is basically an inversion of Em, you may as well play G Em F#.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
(I mean, E6 you can play of course, but it’s not what I had in mind)
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
So a couple of rules-of-thumb
* Be careful using the 4 chord (Bm) because it wants to become a new tonic.
* Avoid going 5(dim) 1 because thyat wants to become a 251 in Bm.
* The 1, the b7, and the b2 (F#, em, G) are the safe chords. Take care when using other ones.
(Unfortunately, I have now forgotten what the reason was. I just remember reading it and thinking "Oh, OK, that makes sense. I'll remember to say "dominant Phrygian" or "Phrygian dominant" from now on." That was a few months ago. Don't remember where I read it. Ask me about this morning. I'm good on this morning.)
Guess I could’ve just looked it up. Good old Wikipedia. Apparently the “dominant” refers to Phrygian being the fifth mode of the Harmonic Minor scale. (F# being the fifth of B.). I forgot about the reorienting/reordering of things once we step out of the Major parent scale.
https://www.jazz-guitar-licks.com/pages/guitar-scales-modes/modes-of-the-harmonic-minor-scale/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_dominant_scale
The chord built off the dominant note is a dominant chord. It normally has a major 3rd and a minor 7th, but in weird modes that’s not always the case.
Sometimes you can introduce a temporary, “secondary” dominant, somewhere else in the scale, and use it to cadence into a temporary tonic that isn’t the real tonic. Like in That’s Life, the second chord is a III7, cadencing to the vi. But that’s not the primary dominant. The primary dominant is always the V (or v).
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Am I correct that it is?
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Anyway, that's my habit. I should probably try saying "flat 7" and see if that works OK.
(Also because a flat 7 chord is a name that some people ascribe to the chord off the flattened 7 - eg in E major (or E mixolydian), the D chord. So, yup, everyone colludes in the erroneous dominant 7 chord naming
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I didn't know XYZ, the sound is amazing. Cheers!
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
@Cranky - harmonise the C major scale and then harmonise C melodic minor scale in thirds. Notice anything as more 3rds get stacked on top of each other?
This is an AMAZING live performance- crowd loving it!
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Lydian Dominant doesn't normally act as a dominant. As far as I know. I most often encounter it as the tonic (eg The Simpsons), or as the 4 chord in melodic minor. But yep, ok in your example it's a dominant. But I still assume it's called Lydian Dominant because it's Lydian with a flat 7th.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.