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What are the characteristics of Phrygian mode in music?(with sample videos)

What are the characteristics of Phrygian mode in music?(with sample videos)

Scroll down and click the Quora link to watch the videos:

A Quoran requested my answer to the question:

What are the characteristics of Phrygian?

A few of the other answers that beat me to it stressed the fact that Phrygian is the third mode and hence any iii chord (chord on the third scale degree) will sound Phrygian. I take issue with that answer because if you hear Phrygian in the context of functional harmony you will not hear the yummy, mysterious and dark sounds of Phrygian – rather, you will hear the sound of a iii chord in the context of an implied or actually played tonic. So you hear the functional identity of the scale or chord (not the modal one).

In order to remedy that, we have to put Phrygian into a modal context, one that is not built on the relationship to a I chord (as tonic) but rather a context that makes the root of the Phrygian scale the focal point. Would you like to hear what that sounds like?
Read my answer which contains YouTube examples. Enjoy!

Many more answers to interesting queries like this in my new Ear Training Course

Read Ariane Cap’s answer to What are the characteristics of Phrygian mode in music? on Quora

Related posts:

Shortcut to modes

Watch my student teach you modes

Music Theory Course for Bass Players

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