Modal Interchange

Phrygian Dominant (all)

#1: Mode overview

Phrygian Dominant, also known as the hijaz in Turkish, is most immediately usable in genres like:

It’s very versatile - it projects a lot of power, and can also be very lush. It’s easy to use. In fact, it’s so versatile that I’d say Phrygian Dominant is the #1 underrated mode for musicians just starting to make their own music.

Phrygian Dominant doesn’t tend to have especially long chord progressions. Instead, you tend to see short loops (“vamps”). Most of what you need to understand is just these two vamps:

A note on seventh chords

i.e. why I write "I7" instead of just "I"

Throughout this series, you’ll see me write chords as (for example) I7 or ♭IImaj7 sometimes, even when the example song might technically be playing just simple triads (root, 3rd, and 5th - no 7th).

I do this because in modal music, the seventh is always there in the air, implied by the scale, even if no instrument is playing them right this second.

In some cases it’s clearer or more correct to w

So, at a first approximation you can view triads as “reduced voicings” of the seventh chords in the same. They get the same idea across with a cleaner, less complicated sound.

There are a couple interesting exceptions in where this guideline does not apply - where the triad and the seventh chord have a noticeably different character - but I’ll note those individually.

#2: I7 - ♭IImaj7

  1. [Funk] Autobahn by the Fearless Flyers - the B section
    1. FEARLESS FLYERS: “AUTOBAHN” (at 1:47)
  2. [Surf rock] Misirlou by Dick Dale and the Daletones - the A section
    1. Pulp Fiction Misirlou (0:00 to 0:48)
  3. [Hip Hop] United in Grief by Kendrick Lamar - the A section
    1. I - ♭IImaj7♯11 - I
      1. The ♯11 here (the fifth of the scale) just adds some extra crunch
    2. Kendrick Lamar - United In Grief (Official Audio) (0:20 - 1:00)
  4. [Industrial] A short groove I made on Strudel for this tutorial

#3: I7 - ♭vii7

  1. [Traditional Turkish] Kasap Havasi arr. by Selim Sesler - the A section
    1. I7 - ♭vii7 - I7
      1. It’s 8 bars: I7 (4 bars) - ♭vii7 (2 bars) - I7 (2 bars)
    2. https://open.spotify.com/track/7yQXkRDmtCO91xqURbwp8I?si=6013c91ea2ff4b1f (0:00 to 0:18)
  2. [Interstellar Balkan Surf] Shepherds of the Infinite Cycle by Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band - the A section
    1. I7 - ♭vii7
    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttPQrbwdmkE (0:00 to 0:29)

#4: They’re variants of each other

Play these two vamps yourself a bit when you get a chance. What you’ll find is that ♭vii7 and ♭IImaj7 sound like two sides of the same coin, two variants of the same underlying sound.

And so, musicians often take advantage of this to make variations on this theme.

  1. Monserrat Serrat by Hungry March Band
    1. I7 - ♭IImaj7 - I7 - ♭vii7 / I7 - ♭IImajj7 - I7 (x2)
    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6tLXlde3MQ
  2. Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona
    1. This is mostly a combination of I7 - ♭IImaj7 and a variation: I7 - ♭IImaj7 - ♭vii7
      1. Going from ♭IImaj7 to ♭vii7 is a darkening motion, but the harmony stays on the same underlying harmonic object
    2. Melodicially, the ♭3 (borrowed from Phrygian) and the ♮3 are both used a lot (this is covered soon in the lesson “Modal interchange”)
    3. Recordings:
      1. Old piano recording of the composer playing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2ksNyyuViQ
      2. Boston Brass has another great recording of this www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Sq44UaFW8
      3. Here’s the Stan Kenton arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxNe5mN-AP0
      4. Here’s a famous drum corps arrangement by the Madison Scouts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECUpJuUeAQ (this is based off the Stan Kenton arrangement)
  3. God is Busy, May I Help You? by Kultur Shock
    1. God Is Busy, May I Help You?
    2. I7 - ♭vii7 - ♭IImaj7 - I7
    3. The A section is the clearest example of this, and you hear the chords outlined in the bass
  4. Venzinatiko, Greek traditional
    1. Listen to the A section (roughly 0:00 to 0:30) in these two recordings.
      1. If you listen mostly to the bass line, with the exception of the differences highlighted, you can hear the chords are...
        1. Goran Bregović: (0:00 to 0:29) Goran Bregović - Venzinatiko - (audio) - 2009
          1. I7 [x4] - ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
          2. I7 [x4] - ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
          3. ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2] - ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
        2. Alkistis Protopsalti & Goran Bregović: Venzinadiko - Alkistis Protopsalti & Goran Bregovic
          1. I7 [x4] - ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
          2. I7 [x4] - ♭vii7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
          3. ♭IImaj7 [x2] - I7 [x2] - ♭IImaj7 [x2] - I7 [x2]
        3. ​​Alkistis Protopsalti & Dimitra Galani Venzinadiko (Live)
          1. I7 [x4] - ♭IImaj1 [x1] - ♭vii7 [x1] - I7 [x2]
          2. I7 [x4] - ♭IImaj1 [x1] - ♭vii7 [x1] - I7 [x2]
          3. ♭IImaj1 [x1] - ♭vii7 [x1] - I7 [x2] - ♭IImaj1 [x1] - ♭vii7 [x1] - I7 [x2]
      2. Notice how it changes the feel just a tiny bit?
        1. It means the choice between these two chords is a fine-grained creative color choice. Their energetic shape is basically the same, but the choice lets you “salt to taste”, so to speak.

#5: Camping on the I7 chord

A common choice is to just play the I7 chord for a while. You can easily convey the character of the entire mode by doing this.

And note that 2 out of the 3 non-chord-tones in the scale, the ♭2 and the ♭6, are spicy dark chord extensions over the I7 (a ♭9 and a ♭13).

#6: Modal interchange

Modal interchange, in short, is what you call it when:

So, for example, if someone plays a ♭3 in a Phrygian Dominant song, there’s no ♭3 in Phrygian Dominant, so we’d call that a borrowed note. And it’s borrowed from the Phrygian mode, which is the mode with all the same notes as Phrygian Dominant except that it has a ♭3 rather than a ♮3.

(The fuller definition will live on the encyclopedia)

A diagram to help illustrate this:

1 ♭2 3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Phrygian Dominant
1 ♭2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Phrygian

[Note: for whatever reason, mono-spaced fonts in Google docs don’t want to align right with ♭ symbols - I assume I can fix this on the web]

Phrygian

Phrygian is by far the #1 mode to do modal interchange with. It’s so common and so useful that you’ll hear the interchange more often than not.

Sometimes you borrow a ♭3 in the melody:

  1. Unholy by Sam Smith
    1. This is a I - ♭II vamp
      1. This is a really clear example of the vamp - the chord changes are determined by the bass.
    2. The melody outlines the rest of the scale. Here’s each syllable of the lyrics, which the scale degree that each one hits:
      1. Mu(5)-mmy(5) don't(5) know(5) da(4)-ddy's(5) get(♭6)-ting(5) hot(4)
      2. At(♮3) the(4) bo(5)-dy(4) shop(♮3)
      3. Do(1)-ing(1) some(4)-thing(♭3) un(♭2)-ho(♭2)-ly(1)
    3. Notice how subtle that is! It’s just an eighth note in the middle of the phrase.

Sometimes you use this vamp: I7 - ♭IImaj7 - ♭III [- ♭IImaj7].
Notice that I’m writing ♭III as a triad - why? As a seventh chord, it’s a dominant 7th chord - a ♭III7, with the scale’s ♭2 serving as the seventh. When you voice this seventh, it means there’s a tritone in the chord, and inherently more crunch. To my ears, ♭III and ♭III7 sound fairly similar in context, but distinct enough that I think of them as distinct things. There’s probably songs where you can substitute your ♭III for a ♭III7 with only a small color change, and probably some where doing that will add too much crunch.

A common alternate move is to use a ♭III6 chord, which is an inverted i7 chord - adding a sixth adds color without running into the same complication.

A list of songs that do this:

  1. [Latin jazz] La Fiesta by Chick Corea - the A section
  2. [Modal jazz] Olé by John Coltrane - most of the song
    • “This vamp packaged as a 3/4 time 220 BPM jazz standard” is more or less what Olé is
    • Listen to Pharoah Sanders - Olé, starting at around 2:30, and going on forever
  3. [Psychedelic rock] Cornflake by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - the B section
  4. [Alt rock] Everything in its Right Place by Radiohead - the intro
  5. [Alt rock] Pyramid Song by Radiohead - most of the song
  6. [Trance] Lorena by Joris Delacroix - the entire song

Playing *between* Phrygian and Phrygian Dominant is also common. The way you do this is just by avoiding playing a ♭3 or a ♮3 - keep this ambiguous.

  1. Sexyback by Justin Timberlake
    • Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (Official Video) ft. Timbaland
    • This song almost entirely stays in the ambiguous space between the scales, but it has little moments of disambiguation.
      • At 2:30 (and later at 3:26), there’s a synth part that comes out - I hear this as playing chords i and ♭II, the top of the chords being ♭3 to 4 motion, i.e. it plays the ♭3, disambiguating toward Phrygian
      • At 2:42, there’s a little guitar riff that disambiguates, and goes up the Phrygian Dominant scale - listen to the ♮3 here
      • At 3:00, the lyrics “if that’s your girl, better watch your back”, the second syllable of “girl” goes down to a ♮3
      • Notice how the disambiguation changes the color a little bit, without doing anything too dramatic, and how the song plays with those color changes

Why does borrowing from Phrygian work so well?

Other modes

See the encyclopedia. None of the other modal interchange options are important enough that you should learn them in a tutorial. I’ll tell you one of my favorites as a teaser though:

#7: Empty iv chord

[Is this too advanced? Should this live in the encyclopedia?]

The “empty” iv chord is a hip-hop producer’s technique: it’s when you play the iv chord without the third.

Producers will voice chords without thirds, in general, because:

  1. The normal place to voice the third, with a synth or a piano, is in the low- to mid-register
    1. Why? If it’s too low, it’ll be muddy against the bass, and if it’s too high it sounds like a melody or countermelody line, and demands the ear’s attention
  2. But when the 808 is playing the bass note, that range (200-400hz) is too crowded: 1) that’s where the rapper’s voice usually is and 2) that’s where the overtones of the 808 sound are strongest. And you don’t want to cover those up.
  3. So producers take advantage of this limitation in a few ways:
    1. Have implicit thirds, i.e. the melody hits the chord’s thirds.
    2. Use both ♭3 and ♮3 in the melody
    3. Avoid playing either a ♭3 or a ♮3

In Phrygian Dominant, you’ll sometimes see this technique used with the iv chord.

A quick primer on the iv chord in Phrygian Dominant:

The iv is one of the chords I make sure to distinguish as a triad that’s separate from its seventh chord in Phrygian Dominant, because with a seventh it’s ivMaj7 - the way you say that chord symbol is “minor-major seventh” - and is a chord which tends to sound intense due to the augmented triad it has internally. Augmented triads are usually intense inside a voicing. Many genres avoid them entirely.

So when the iv chord is used, it’s usually used as a triad - you should still think of it as ivMaj7, because the chord’s seventh (the scale’s ♮3) is floating in the harmonic context. But songwriters will be very subtle about actually playing the seventh - maybe they’ll play it in a grace note, etc.), or avoid it entirely. Little hints of intensity are usually interesting.

However, if you’re doing some Phrygian interchange in your song, it’s not actually clearly a ivMaj7 chord. Now you have some ambiguity with the seventh, between:

Now, when we're talking about the iv triad in particular, it’s extra interesting to drop the 3rd:

Example: DNA by Kendrick Lamar

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