Modal Interchange

Phrygian Dominant

Encyclopedia view

Overview

The Phrygian Dominant mode - called the hijaz is Turkish - is one of music’s most common, most recognizable, and most distinctive scales. Generally speaking, it can project both darkness and power, motion and brooding, drama and satisfaction.

It is a great scale to study.

It’s used across genres in popular western music, and also used heavily in folk European music particularly middle-eastern and Balkan traditions. The folk usages of the mode are more aggressively modal, so to speak - that is, they’re more willing to use weirder parts of the mode - and they borrow from the surrounding mode-space a lot, in ways that pop-music uses of the Phrygian Dominant really don’t do as much.

Chord and energetic structure

Scale shape: Root - b2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - b6 - b7

Phrygian Dominant is a “mode of” Harmonic Minor (that is, it’s in the same group modes, modulo a rotation). It’s what you get if you start a scale on the 5th scale degree of Harmonic Minor.

The other 5 modes of this mode family are Lydian #2, Ioinian #5, Dorian #4, Locrian ♮6, and Altered Diminished. Phrygian Dominant is arguably the most common of all of these, probably even more than Harmonic Minor itself.

The family is notable for its augmented 2nd interval (modes of the major scale and modes of the melodic minor scale don’t have this).[^1]

Scale geometry:


(link to canva file)

Phrygian Dominant, like all 7-note modes, has 7 diatonic seventh chords. But at a higher level it really only has like 3 ½ total harmonic centers of gravity:

[TODO: what are the available suspended chords?]

Phrygian Dominant is NOT a “functional” scale - that is, its chords don’t have tonic/subdominant/dominant energies, like chords in major and minor do. Instead it’s a vampy scale. The most common thing to do by far with this scale is one of these two vamps:

Or a combination of both, like I7 - bIImaj7 - I7 - bvii7. I call these (together) the primary vamp.

It’s also common just to hang out on the I7 chord. Musicians call this “playing the mode”, though for Phrygian Dominant, playing the primary vamp also feels a lot like playing the whole mode at once. (Partly this is because, in each case, the chords are 1 step apart, and so cover all 7 notes in the scale between both chords).

Here are each chord’s extensions in table form:

| Chord | I7 | bIImaj7 | iiio7 | ivMaj7 | v7b5 | bVI+maj7 | bvii7 | | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | :---- | | Extensions | b9, b13 | #11, 13 | b13 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 9, 13 |

Hooktheory.com’s analytics for Phrygian Dominant bears this out:
https://www.hooktheory.com/trends#key=Rel\&scale=phrygian\&path=M1

Primary vamp examples

This section is just a bunch of examples of songs that use the primary Phrygian Dominant vamps:

Or small variations on them. This is such a useful and common vamp, it’s worth training your ear to hear it.

Spanish classical

  1. Malagueña

Eastern European

  1. Kasap Havasi (traditional Turkish) arr. by Selim Sesler - the A section
  2. Chuperlika (aka Niški čoček) (traditional Roma - arr by Balkan Paradise Orchestra) - the A section
    • The A section goes: I7 - bIImaj7 - I7 - bIImaj7 - I7 (2 bars) - bvii7 - I7
    • Recording https://open.spotify.com/track/3cGj4szI6vr9VCIyYvtoWK?si=38d518d1de5647f6
      • The bIImaj7 is subtle in this recording! The bass stays on the root (which is the 7th of the bIImaj7 chord) and the mid-brass stays on the I7’s chord tones, but the melody focuses on the chord tones of bIImaj7
      • (In the arrangement I play, the mid-brass goes more explicitly toward the bIImaj7’s chord tones)
  3. Shepherds of the Infinite Cycle by Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band
    • I7 - bvii7 vamp for the A section
    • The B section is either just a iv7 chord the whole time, or a iv7 - bIImaj7 vamp (depending on how you interpret it), before ending on the I7 again
    • Notice how the the b3 is used primarily in the melody, with a nat3 being used for strategic brightness
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttPQrbwdmkE
  4. Până când nu te iubeam (traditional Romanian)
    • The harmony for this mostly stays on I7, dipping into either a bIImaj7 - bvii7 or just a bvii7 sometimes for some build-up and color (in the 3rd or 7th bar of a phrase)
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtxjESiqjg
    • In a few parts the melody will borrow a nat7 from the Flamenco mode

Video games / anime

  1. Lake Guardians Theme from the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl OST
  2. Decisive Battle from the Neon Genesis Evangelion OST
    • https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/shiro-sagisu/neon-genesis-evangelion---decisive-battle
      • Initial vamp: I7 - V7b9sus#4
      • The second chord initial vamp is a hard-to-describe chord - in the normal key (E Phrygian Dominant), this is described as F/B.
        • This can almost be described as a V7(b9,#11), however this chord is diatonic, and V7 is not diatonic - you’d have to borrow a nat7 from the Flamenco scale, and this song doesn’t do that.
        • It can also be described as a V7b9sus#4, which is not a very normal chord, but it’s the one I’m choosing
        • It can also be described as an inverted bIIadd#11 chord…though #11 in the bass is not a normal way to voice this kind of chord
        • To me it sounds like something that’s sort of dominant (it has the clear root motion 5 -> 1) but largely sounds like a subtonic, and has a great bite to it
    • Chorus: the progression changes just slightly to add some darker Phrygian modal interchange:
      • E - F/E - G/E - F/B (- E …)
        • I - bII - i7 - V7b9sus#4 (- I …)

Uncategorized

  1. Blackstar by David Bowie - the verse
    • https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/david-bowie/blackstar
    • Pretty typical uses of the mode:
      • Largely stays on I7, going briefly to bII and bvii for motion
      • bIII borrowed from Phrygian, to move to the iv
    • Interesting uses of the mode:
      • Held bII, going briefly to the bIII for motion
      • Resolving to a I7sus (before ultimately resolving to a I7)
  2. DNA by Kendrick Lamar
  3. Everything in its Right Place by Radiohead
    • https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/radiohead/everything-in-its-right-place
    • Intro vamp: I - bII - bIII6
      • bIII6 borrowed from Phrygian
      • The bIII6 is a clever bit of texture because the root is still on top
    • The chorus has a similar thing going on except the start of each phrase is a IV chord borrowed from Mixolydian b2
      • (so notice how Radiohead goes from Mixolydian b2 to Phrygian Dominant to Phrygian all in one phrase!)
  4. Monserrat Serrat by Hungry March Band
  5. Variation with a little modal interchange with Phrygian: I7 - bIImaj7 (Phrygian) - bIII - bIImaj7
    6. 14.

Other vamp options

Longer progressions

Modal mimicry

AKA ”you might think it’s Phrygian Dominant, but nope!”

(Placeholder name for this concept- Claude Sonnet 4 also suggests Phantom Modality, Modal Decoy, Floating Modal Gesture, Displaced Modal Vamps, Transposed Modal Gestures, Modal Shadowing, Modal Dopplegangers, Harmonic Mirage)

The Aeolean and Harmonic Minor modes specifically (maybe Ionian too?) are very suitable for vamps that don’t include the i chord. So as a result there are a lot of vamps in these two scales that are in a sense the same thing (i.e. they have part of their energetic signature in common) as one of the primary vamps in a parallel mode - except the root is in a different place.

Here’s what’s relevant for us:

If you see a B7 and a Cmaj7 in the wild, which is it? It depends on the root is E, then you’re in E Harmonic Minor. If the root is B then you’re in B Phrygian Dominant.

Usually one note will clearly sound like the root, and there are a lot of musical techniques to emphasize that root but the most basic one is that the melody leads you there when it resolves (Montero does this, see below). Another technique is to vamp these chords for a while but then resolve to the i7 in Harmonic Minor (Caravan does this, see below).

There are a few songs I know of that do this:

Modal interchange

w/ Phrygian (b3)

By far the most common scale to borrow from.

The b3 gives you great things over all the main chords you’d use in Phrygian Dominant:

  1. a #9 over the I7
  2. an 11 over the bvii7 (or you could make a bvii7sus chord)
  3. a 9 over the bIImaj7

As such it is VERY common to see a Phrygian melody over a Phrygian Dominant vamp. And note that if you play just the minor pentatonic in the melody, it implies interchange with Phrygian.

b4 / Altered sound

This is a really neat, and somewhat subtle way to make a Phrygian Dominant tune sound darker.

Since we’re already in a sort of dark space (b2, b6), the nat3 can instead feel like a b4 if you let it. The main way to do this, AFAIK, in general, is to have the b4 go down to a b3 - and wouldn’t you know it, that’s a move available to us if we have interchange with Phrygian. (The core lick is something like b4 - b3 - b2 - 1 IMO). This is a cool way to add some bite that has no avoid notes over the I7. The b4 is an avoid note (#9) over the bIImaj7 though, so it’s a little more intense there.

Technically it’s not quite the Altered Scale if you do that. It’s Phrygian b4. An Altered scale would bring you, additionally, a b5 (which conveniently also is an available tension over your I7!).

This also coincides with the normal jazz chord-scale technique of playing the altered scale over a dominant chord. If you do it here you can get your shit to sound marginally darker, while staying in-mode.

w/ Mixolydian b6 (nat2)

What does the nat2 give you?

w/ Mixolydian b2 (nat6)

What does the nat6 do for you?

  1. Gives you a 13th above the I7 chord
  2. Gives you an 11th over iiio7
    • Or you can make iiio7sus: this is a pretty intense chord, an alternate tonic, doesn’t seem to naturally slot in to a progression very easily
  3. Gives you a 9th over the v7b5
  4. It’s an avoid note over the bvii7 chord (a maj7)
  5. It’s an avoid note over the bIImaj7 chord (a b13)
  6. Changed chords:
    • IVmaj7
    • vi7 (aka I6)
      • Theoretical
      • Obviously an altered tonic - this takes it into a really interesting space. A mildly unsettling mixture of intensity and chill. Would be a neat dark funk riff.
      • You can also voice this as vi7 to bvii7, a half-step-apart sequence, which is itself interesting-sounding
    • VI7 (cheater)
      • Theoretical - TODO play this
    • Augmentations: it makes the bIImaj7 chord into a bII+maj7 and the bvii7 chord into a bviiMaj7 chord
      • Niski Cocek - specifically the Eric Peters arrangement
        • TODO: get a recording of this, because it’s not present in the Balkan Paradise Orchestra version
        • B section: bviiMaj7 - [bvii7 - I7] / [bIImaj7 - bvii6/9] - I7
          • The fall from bviiMaj7 to bvii7 borrows the nat6

w/ Flamenco (nat7)

What does the nat7 get you?

Examples:

  1. Just the nat7 melodically
    • Până când nu te iubeam (traditional Romanian)
      • The harmony for this is mostly I7, dipping into either a bIImaj7 - bvii7 or just a bvii7 sometimes for some build-up and color (in the 3rd or 7th bar of a phrase)
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCtxjESiqjg
        • The form is something like this:
          • Instrumental A (0:07)
          • Instrumental B (0:27)
            • Here you’ll notice a borrowed nat7. This is borrowed from the Flamenco scale.
          • Song A (0:53)
          • Song B (1:13)
          • Song A refrain (1:37)
            • Again a borrowed nat7
          • Song B (1:57)
          • …
  2. iv°Maj7
    • Like any chord of this quality, it’s very intense
    • I could see this being used as a quick stab but not as a vamp
    3. 23.

w/ Phrygian Dominant #4 (#4)

w/ Locrian Dominant (b5)

w/ Harmonic Major (nat2, nat7)

Putting this under “basic” modal interchange instead of advanced because THIS IS WHERE THE V7 CHORD COMES FROM IF YOU BORROW IT

It is a very distinct sound vs borrowing from Harmonic Minor, which is what Aeolean/Phrygian/Locrian do.

Advanced modal interchange

w/ Aeolean (nat2, b3)

w/ Dorian b2 (b3, nat6)

  1. bIII(#11)
    • Theoretical - TODO try this out
    • Maybe even bIII7(#11)?

w/ Phrygian #4 (b3, #4)

w/ Ionian b2 (nat6, nat7)

Interesting chords you get:

Examples:

w/ Neapolitan Minor (b3, nat7)

w/ Locrian (b3, b5)

w/ blues scale

Given that playing the minor pentatonic over a Phrygian Dominant progression implicitly means you’re borrowing from Phrygian, playing the blues scale would further imply you’re borrowing from the Locrian (Phrygian + b5) or the Phrygian #4.

For what it’s worth this totally works. It’s kind of a dreary blues but not overly dreary, you get me?

Tutorial view

Links

Interface sketch

Early early draft

The spiral

I’m not actually sure this counts as a spiral at the moment? It’s probably not gradual enough.

  1. Two main vamps: i7 - bvii7 and i7 - bIImaj7
    1. Somehow explain that bvii7 and bIImaj7 are two sides of the same coin
    2. Give a TON of examples
    3. CONGRATS! The first lesson is enough to use the mode effectively. That’s 75% of real world usage right there.
  2. Variations on the two main vamps
    1. Specifics:
      1. I7-bIImaj7-I7-bvii7
      2. (TODO)
  3. Basic modal interchange w/ Phrygian
    1. b3 used melodically over a Phrygian Dominant vamp
      1. Show what the b3 does to the bIImaj7 and bvii7 chords (good things!)
      2. Show what the b3 does to the I7 (a good thing!)
      3. The very beginning of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Liszt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALqOKq0M6ho
    2. Vamp: I7 - bIImaj7 - bIIImaj7 - bIImaj7
    3. Vamp: I7 - bIIImaj7
      1. The specific voicing to focus on is I - bIII; if you hear this it’s often in rock music, and it’s Dorian x Mixolydian - but you can also play it in a Phrygian Dominant kind of way, and it still sounds like rock music!
        1. So this is like the “how to play rock music with Phrygian Dominant (i.e. play the mode without taking it out of the genre - if it sounds like metal or it sounds too dark you’ve gone too far)”
    4. Bonus: I7 and i7 both used
      1. Decisive Battle from the Neon Genesis Evangelion OST - the chorus
        1. https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/shiro-sagisu/neon-genesis-evangelion---decisive-battle
  4. Less common vamp: i7 - iv
    1. Explain a little bit about the augmented triad involved in the full ivMaj7 and the bVI+maj7 - point at the encyclopedia, and basically say it’s a very strong specific sound you don’t normally want, this is why it doesn’t get a lot of play unless you just play the iv
    2. Example: Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue
      1. (not as a simple vamp, but as part of a 4-chord loop [arguably still a vamp] in Phrygian Dominant)
      2. (this is kind of a stretch and I should look for a more canonical example)
  5. A larger borrowing universe
    1. One example from Mixolydian b2:
      1. Everything in its Right Place by Radiohead - the chorus
        1. https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/radiohead/everything-in-its-right-place
        2. The chorus goes: IV - I - bII - bIII6
        3. The IV chord is borrowed from Mixolydian b2 (and the bIII6 from Phrygian)
    2. One example from Mixolydian b6
      1. Arguably Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue
      2. Kind of a stretch because it’s a whole section in Mixolydian b6 (the verse), and then just the chorus is in Phrygian Dominant
        1. I see it as interchange partially because the chorus seems like the heart of the song, and the verse is hanging out away from the “home mode” to establish a specific kind of tension
    3. Honorable mention: playing the blues scale over a Phrygian Dominant
      1. It works! It sounds kind of like an intense dark powerful blues. It’s essentially Phrygian interchange, with that extra #4/b5 added on top.

OUT OF SCOPE (belongs in the encyclopedia):

  1. I7 - biiio7
  2. Stabilized subdominant chords from Phrygian borrowing
    1. I7 - iv7
      1. I’d need to find some examples of this -
    2. I7 - bVImaj7
      1. I don’t like this as a straight up vamp that much. It’s nice, it’s stable…idk it’s not that interesting?
      2. bVImaj7 is also an option, where the b2 is used explicitly
      3. The bVImaj7 is a little more interesting when it leads to the bIImaj7 or bvii7 I think?
  3. Interchange with other neighbors:
    1. Flamenco (nat7)
      1. If I had a really good example of this I’d use it, but this is best used for a quick but of passing-tone spice - it doesn’t really give you useful harmonic options
      2. It’s an avoid note over every single diatonic chord
        1. (so if you do play this you’ll want to use the harshness to your advantage)
    2. Locrian Dominant (b5)
    3. Phrygian Dominant #4 (#4)

Principles (provisional)

What a lesson could look like

A React piano

V1 for Elijah

Module: Phrygian Dominant mode

“Hyperchord” illustration of the mode

^ something like this - this is a diagram for the whole mode, not just this lesson, and the idea is to visually communicate the high-level shape of the mode. The muted vs saturated colors communicate which chords are more common. The arrows communicate “these two chords are actually parts of a single aural structure”. The challenge is how to interleave this with borrowing options. (Not a solved problem yet).

How to interleave this with borrowing options from parallel modes? (I think you’d opt-in to toggle this view). Here’s a stab at it:

Lesson: two main vamps

i7 - bvii7 and i7 - bIImaj7

Copy:
These two vamps are by far the most common and effective ways to play in the Phrygian Dominant mode. bvii7 and bIImaj7 are two sides of the same coin - bvii7 is the darker variant, bIImaj7 is the brighter variant.

Vamping tool?

(Some sort of tool that plays the vamp, with a key picker)

Examples

Spanish classical

  1. Malagueña

Eastern European

  1. Kasap Havasi (traditional Turkish) arr. by Selim Sesler - the A section
  2. Shepherds of the Infinite Cycle by Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band - the A section
  3. Până când nu te iubeam (traditional Romanian)
  4. Monserrat Serrat by Hungry March Band

Video games / anime

  1. Lake Guardians Theme from the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl OST

Hip hop

  1. DNA by Kendrick Lamar

Funk

  1. Autobahn by the Fearless Flyers - the B section
    1. I7 - bIImaj7
    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv5CFqNct14 (at 1:47)

Meta

Overview

[Meta] Goals of this doc

Pre-req

Terminology:

Other stuff:

Why study Phrygian Dominant?

And why study it early?

Backlog

Back to lessons list