Character
The Lydian Mode is one of the three major modes (along with the Mixolydian and the good old major scale Ionian). The Mixolydian is bluesy and rock ‘n’ roll, the Ionian simple and easy, but the Lydian is sweet and dreamy. That dreamy character I think comes from the lack of a dominant seventh chord on the fifth – instead we get a major seventh chord which has less of a pull toward the tonic.
There is also the sharp fourth, which can add an uneasiness to a major chord. Try playing a C chord with an F sharp or an F chord with a B to hear what I mean.
Construction
The lydian mode is almost the same as the ‘normal’ major scale, except that the fourth note is sharpened by one semitone. So in C lydian the notes would be C D E F# G A B C.
You can do the same to any major scale. For example, G lydian is G A B C# D E F# G. D lydian is D E F# G# A B C# D.
To generalise, the intervals in the lydian mode are:
Tone Tone Tone Semitone Tone Tone Semitone.
It might look like a tiny change but having that sharp fourth is what gives the lydian mode its character.
Chords:
The seven chords in this mode are:
IMaj7 II7 iiim7 IVhalf-dim Vmaj7 vimin7 viiMin7
In C Lydian: C Maj7 D7 Em7 F#half-dim Gmaj7 Amin7 BMin7
In G Lydian: G Maj7 A7 Bm7 C#half-dim Dmaj7 Emin7 F#Min7
Chord Progressions?
The Fleetwood Mac song above uses the most common chords in this mode – the tonic followed by the second, both of which are major. In this case E the F#, but you could try G then A, or C the D.
Some other possibilities:
C, Am,D, C.
C, Em, D, C.
C, Am, Bm, C.
My other posts in this series can be found here:
And here:
Related posts:
