Phrygian has a sound much like the minor scale but with a darker edge. A common choice in metal, prog and hip-hop, 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”:
https://youtu.be/2T_xLmZ4YPc
Early version of “Misirlou”:
https://youtu.be/LW6qGy3RtwY
12 tone analysing “White Rabbit”:
https://youtu.be/mxp7W6H-Oig
Listening In analysing “Pyramid Song”:
https://youtu.be/P8aSFj6zdx0
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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