[PIANO MUSIC]
Today's lesson, we're going to talk about a couple of different scales.
But in this demonstration, I'd like to just focus on one.
It's called the Spanish Phrygian scale.
As the name implies, it has attributes of the Phrygian scale.
But it has an extra bonus note, which adds a little bit of color
both in terms of harmony and gives us some melodic alternatives as we're
exploring the tones of the scale.
As you're dealing with these individually exotic scales this week,
I'd like to encourage you to write little sketches just
in the world of each scale and to think of it as, again, a mood or a setting
or a landscape or a spacescape, if you want to,
an underwater scape in the case of some scales, the dream state,
if you want to.
Let your imagination go wild.
And try to come to some sort of emblematic association in your own mind
with the scales.
That's when they really become powerful because you
can use them in your own language to help with storytelling.
Now the Spanish Phrygian scale is very interesting.
Of course, we know the Phrygian scale starting on C is 1--
[PLAYING SCALE]
--flat 2, flat 3, 4, 5, flat 6, flat 7, 1.
And at this point, you've written a Phrygian piece
and have explored it inside and out both in terms of melody and harmony.
Now the Spanish Phrygian is really interesting
because we get a bonus note.
We have not only a minor third, but we also
have a major third included in the scale.
So Spanish Phrygian sounds like this--
[PLAYING SCALE]
So we've got--
[SINGING RHYTHM]
Very interesting collection.
Incidentally, it's the same collection as the mixolydian flat 9 sharp 9
flat 13 scale, which you've learned to associate with dominant seventh chords,
which move to minor target chords.
Now it's the same collection of notes, but we're
going to orient it very differently.
Rather than think about the basic triad and seventh chord as a dominant chord
which resolves to a minor tonic chord, we're going to think about the basic 1,
or the root note triad--
[PLAYING SCALE]
--as being the tonic chord of this particular scale.
That's kind of an interesting concept.
Let me play you something that I think you'll find very familiar.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Sound familiar?
A flamenco cadence, or what we refer to as the Phrygian cadence in music.
Even though it sounds like--
[PLAYING PIANO]
--we're in a loop that moves back to that chord,
we're really thinking of this triad, the tonic triad,
as being the center of the scale.
That's going to be the chord of resolution.
So it's kind of like a dominant scale, which
is being turned on its head in a way, so if you can wrap your mind around that.
It's very energetic, has a dark color.
But it also has this festive tonic major triad that we can use.
Let's take a look at the scale in terms of its melodic possibilities.
So I'm going to just hold the tonic triad.
[PLAYING CHORD]
And I'm going to work through the tones of the scale.
[PLAYING SCALE]
Visions of bullfights and old Spain.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Now the fact that we have two thirds, both a Me and a Mi,
gives us melodic cadential options or a melodic alternative.
So we can come down the scale or move up the scale,
skipping Me and going from Ra to Mi and getting a very exotic sort of Arabic
or Turkic sounding melodic gesture.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Got a lot of nice potential.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Or we can use the flat third as well.
[PLAYING PIANO]
And that really comes into conflict with that tonic triad.
Doesn't it?
[PLAYING PIANO]
Because we get that sharp 9 tension that we've come to understand in the blues.
[PLAYING PIANO]
So within the Spanish Phrygian scale, you
have the potential for two melodic alternative thirds.
We want to think of the major third as being our tonic triad sound.
But we can decorate with either the sharp 9 sound of the minor third
or have the augmented second skip of Ra to Mi as a potential melodic delight.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Or even both of them in combination.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Possible elaborate decoration there.
[PLAYING PIANO]
So that's up for you to explore and just find your own style
in Spanish Phrygian.
Spanish Phrygian is a favorite of the film composer Jeff Beale.
Actually, he is more associated with television.
He's done a lot of work for HBO.
He's done the HBO series, Rome, also, House of Cards for Netflix.
And he's done a number of made-for-television movies.
And the Spanish Phrygian sound is his characteristic sound.
So I'd urge you to check out some of his work
and see how he's using it in his sound cues for media.
Let's look at the Spanish Phrygian scale from a harmonic perspective.
We have the tonic triad C major.
[PLAYING CHORD]
We have the cadence chord flat 2 major--
[PLAYING CHORD]
--from the Phrygian character.
[PLAYING CHORD]
We have the potential for flat 3 major as an approach.
[PLAYING CHORDS]
And then the subdominant chord within the key is going to be F minor--
[PLAYING CHORD]
--which gives us another stable area.
But again, we have to be very careful to treat it as subdominant
and to give emphasis to the tonic so that we're not tonicizing the 4 chord.
Again, this scale has a lot of potential to sound like a dominant.
And we have to flip it on its head and make sure
that we're hearing the tonic triad in its appropriate position.
On the top half of the scale, we have the flat 7 minor chord familiar to us
from the Phrygian mode as a cadence chord.
[PLAYING CHORDS]
We have flat 6 major, which can work as an approach chord to flat 7.
[PLAYING PIANO]
Isn't it wonderful?
Really bold.
You know, it just sounds like black and red to me.
[PLAYING PIANO]
And then also within the scale, we have a couple of unstable chords.
We have the 3 diminished triad--
[PLAYING CHORD]
--and by extension--
[PLAYING CHORD]
--the 3 diminished seventh chord, which is
handy for an approach to the subdominant.
[PLAYING PIANO]
3 diminished 7.
[PLAYING PIANO]
And then we also have the 5 minor 7 flat 5
and the 5 diminished chord, which is an approach to the flat 6.
[PLAYING PIANO]
So once again now, we have a scale which is more complex than the Phrygian mode.
It has the potential for possible tonicization of the 4 chord.
So you have to be very careful in how you treat it temporally.
Give lots of emphasis to the tonic major triad.
Embellish it often.
Cadence with the typical Phrygian cadence chords.
And then also, when you're writing in Spanish Phrygian melody,
you have those two melodic alternatives, the flat 3 and the 3,
which can be used to different colorful advantages.
So enjoy yourself.
And explore the Spanish Phrygian mode.
Write a small piece.
Explore the harmonic possibilities.
Explore the melodic possibilities.
And increase your compositional vocabulary.