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Into The Lydian Mode

The Lydian Mode

Lydian can be considered in a number of ways...As a seven-tone scale we can use to accompany major and major 7th chords.As a harmonic system and mode of the major scale. But more broadly, Lydian encompasses a specific musical flavour that composers use to evoke certain emotions and feelings. The Lydian mode is cool because it doesn't really have the avoid note like the Major scale (in which the natural 4th is not really a nice sound, clashes with the 3rd of the chord). The #4 degree is dissonant but sounds cool, not wrong. Many people use this instead of the major scale where there is an unrelated Major Chord, and even sometimes when it's a I chord in a key

The Lydian Mode Theory

The Lydian Mode is type of major scale (it has a natural 3rd) and is in fact only one note different to the major scale - it has a #4 scale degree. This is a very cool sound. You can also think of the Lydian mode as being based off of the 4th scale degree of any major scale. In other words if you went to the 4th degree of any major scale and started playing from there, you would be in the Lydian mode. Let’s stick with our A major scale for an example. D is the 4th scale degree in the A major scale. If you started on a D and played an A major scale, you would be playing a D Lydian scale. It doesn’t matter which way you choose to think about it because the important thing is to be able to hear and express what the Lydian mode sounds like.

The notes that really define the Lydian mode are the 1st, 3rd, and raised 4th scale degrees. The 1st gives us our tonal center or starting point and the 3rd gives us the major sounding quality. The raised 4th scale degree is really the note that gives the Lydian mode it’s defining sound.
FUN FACT:
Think about the theme song for “ The Simpsons ”. This is probably the best know Lydian sounding melody in the world. The whole tone scale is something that I always think of when I hear the Lydian scale too.