Phrygian has a sound much like the minor scale but with a darker edge. A common choice in metal, prog and hiphop, Phrygian introduces an exotic, unnerving sound to a song's tonality. Today we're going to look at some examples of the phrygian mode in action and also look at some similar scales including the Double Harmonic scale and Phrygian Dominant.

CORRECTION 1: at 4:45 the sheet music for “Milkshake” should show three Ds before descending to C#, not just one! Sorry about that and thanks to Asle Fjeldstad for bringing it to my attention.

CORRECTION 2: at 11:05 I said that "Misirlou" started as an Arabic folk song, but in fact it seems it was Greek. Thanks to Theo Querel for bringing that to my attention.

SOURCES:
Phrygian mode in Kendrick’s “HUMBLE”:    • The Phrygian Mode in Kendrick Lamar ...  
Early version of “Misirlou”:    • The original Misirlou  Μισιρλού (Τέτ...  
12 tone analysing “White Rabbit”:    • Understanding White Rabbit  
Listening In analysing “Pyramid Song”:    • Radiohead: Pyramid Song  Analysis  


Stream my EP "The Longest March" at Spotify: https://sptfy.com/davidbennett
or download it at Bandcamp: https://davidbennettpiano.bandcamp.com/

And, an extra special thanks goes to Vidad Flowers, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints!

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON:   / davidbennettpiano  

0:00 What does Phrygian sound like?
1:00 Metal
3:00 Hip hop
5:00 Phrygian is a mode
6:28 Modal mixture
8:19 Phrygian's "middle eastern" sound
11:00 Phrygian dominant
13:00 Modal ambiguity
15:05 Piano outro