The Lydian Chromatic Concept Ep. 4: Resolutions and the Circle of Fifths 

This is the first time I've seen a logical framework for using minor pentatonic and Dorian mode over major chords, rather than just saying, "Because it's blues" or "Because it sounds good".

Blues clues vibe having stuff explained to me with a walking bass in the background 🐬

Oh fuck yeah- I just caught up with the last three episodes and am fucking jazzed for this installment.

I enjoy the series and the pace. Very dense but followable. Thank you

I liked the bassist walking while you talk, made me think that focus comes from motion, as inside of the brain

Super well done Bob! Thanks!

One word says it all - Superb! Thank you!!!

The next episode (I think the next episode) is going to rock yr socks off with the in-going and out-going scales of tonal gravity. Whole-tone scales anyone?!

These videos are super inspiring! Im learning so much and i keep having to pause in the video to do some improv based on these progressions i love it! 😸

This series is a blast!

Had the ‘scales’ falling from my both eyes! So we are traveling from one lydian parent scale to another in a song. Thank you so much and expect your next video, Bob!

Great video! 🎉

This rocks.

LESGOOOO

So what I'm gathering from all this is that in Western tonal music it has become commonplace to organize the modal emotional structure of the major scale by Ionian and it's minor counterpart aeolian which I call the neutral scales versus the natural scales. I can see the sense in doing so, to get a grasp on the emotional directions of the major and minor modes. Either brighter or darker than the neutral maj and min modes So, what it looks to me, is that George Russell discovered that it can be easier for what a jazz composer needs, (which is a path to good resolution) to rethink the, organizational structure putting the mode that provides the most resolution as the parent major scale. And that would also make sense for the Pat Martino method where the Dorian as the brightest of the minor modes probably has the best minor resolve in the way that Lydian, as the brightest maj mode, has the best major resolve... I could be wrong though.

I appreciate you, your videos, and tackling this topic. Thank you! I do want to share that after watching all four videos in this series (so far), I find I'm not sure what the value of it is. Can't any chord go to any chord, regardless of the theoretical explanation or "justification"? Note: I am not against music theory. I'm a bit of a theory nerd, which I why I've been watching these videos. My thoughts probably indicate that I don't truly understand the material. I will plan on watching videos 3 and 4 again. Thanks for your effort and enthusiastic presentation!

the real secret is that 7th chords fit with everything

So far this is the best explanation of the Lydian theory I've ever seen , and in fact the only one that's made much sense. But what I'm wondering about and have never found anything about is how does this apply to soloing in modal tunes? I get how it can be used to understand classic harmony and how it could make more sense of modern tunes like Wayne Shorter etc. But isn't it supposed to be useful over modal harmony - if so how? How does it apply to So What?

I'm don't know if I'm understanding the superposition stuff at all. In all these cases, we have two chordmodes highlighted, but it's not clear what do do about the notes that are not common to both. In the C major example (10:30) we have F and C highlighted when you play the C major scale (~ F lydian), presumably because you are playing a C chord (implying C lydian), okay fine, but what precisely is the status of the F / F#. But why Bb and C highlighted in the sixth chord case? (11: 40) Where is the mixolydian sound that you call out coming from? Surely a C6 chord comes naturally from the sequence of fifths C G (D) E A, hence C lydian. Now there is nothing in a C6 which contradicts, so to speak, a mixolydian sound, so you could play mixolydian melodies over a C6 chord, hmm okay, but that seems like a vocabulary/stylistic thing which is compatible with, but not entailed by the lydian framework. Then at (12:15), we start with the pentatonic of Eb lydian (Eb F G Bb C), then because the C minor pentatonic is the same notes, you can play a C minor pentatonic over a Eb, but over a C major chord, which implies a lydian, you would be clashing with the Eb, F and Bb, so to speak. I'm not even going to ask about the ones after that. Frankly, I don't see what this framework is explaining.

12:31 the pentatonic version of Eb lydian is the same as the pentatonic version of Eb major... so, pigeonholing this into lydian chromatic, it feels like a backronym, to me. I agree with all of your practical examples... and sometimes the theoretical framework has been enlightening... but many times the theoretical pigeonholing feels like an unnecessary complication. The example at the timestamp, are the blues musicians borrowing from Eb lydian? No, not in their own minds. If you're in C, playing blues, you're more involved with the F rather than the F#... and when you borrow, you're borrowing from Eb or Bb or Ab, but it's not major or lydian, but from those tonal centers. I understand that to Russell, those "tonal centers" imply lydian, and he and you have shown why you believe that... but the situation on the ground is different - it's a more practical decision. You're not deciding between Eb major, lydian, pentatonic, or Ab lydian vs major, etc... It's more like, which notes provide the right feel, in the moment, for that song. If I'm playing a C blues, and I use a Db note... there are many possible theoretical explanations... and you can try and figure out which mode or scale I was borrowing from, based on the context notes, what else I played around it... but then if you asked me, I might say, "I was borrowing from C minor, and at that point, I wanted to go even more minor than minor" or some other such nonsense, "vut then some optimism poked thru, with a natural E slipping back in." And someone could analyze and say, oh you were borrowing from phrygian dominant... and someone else could say what the parent lydian scale for that could be, and how many spots around the circle of 5ths that is. Whereas in my mind, it was a musical reflection of an internal struggle between selfishness and compassion, or, the urge to help somebody up versus to steal his wallet while he's down. Nevertheless, challenging theoretical videos, such as this, do seem to help me to discover new (to me) practical musical options. IOW, despite all those words, I'm enjoying these vids and will continue to watch the forthcoming ones, and I have learned from them so far. I want to make that clear, since I've offered a little bit of pushback as well, and that could come off as me having a problem with them, and I don't. I think I'm having issues with some of Russell's contentions, rather than with your presentation of them. Plus, I'm open to the possibilty that I might be wrong about that. I'm not an expert, just a hobbyist keyboards player. Which, P.S. - I know I took a trumpeter's handle... At the time, I thought he was overshadowed by other greats in the jazz zeitgeist, but I'll probably change names before too long. I'll keep the same flower pic for continuity, if I do that. Keep up the good work, and the potentially challenging videos (other commenters seem to be handling the information in the vids with more acceptance, but challenging for me, at least).

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