I started watching your videos with my husband, continued on my own because they're so interesting. I'm not musical at all, don't play an instrument, know nothing about music theory, can't sing. Your talent and knowledge is beyond incredible. I don't listen to the music the same way.
When I was barely out of diapers I remember hearing “Let It Rain” by Eric Clapton and getting a certain feeling from it. Little did I know at the time it was the power of the Mixolydian mode. I got the same feeling from - “Don’t Come Easy” by Ringo Starr (which is basically the same chords).
I tend to think (albeit incorrectly) of the Mixolydian as the “4th mode” as opposed to the 5th. In other words, if I know a song is in G Mixolydian, I simply go up a 4th and know that I just need to play in C Major and target notes accordingly. This is also the most common way to choose a harmonica for playing over most blues/rock music, by going up a 4th from the “tonic” key. Also, the Mixolydian might be even more the sound of country music than it is the sound of rock and pop. No matter how you look at it, in the majority of all popular music that’s in a Major tonality, chances are good that it leans towards Mixo. The Major 7th is a rare bird on the radio.
Well ok...but a 4th is an inverted 5th. It appears that you're thinking of it as the 4th mode because you're looking at the interval you move up to land on the relative Ionian (Major) key. If it helps, you could look instead at the interval you need to move DOWN instead. You land on the same place and your understanding would be more accurate. A 4th is an inverted 5th, a 6th is an inverted 3rd, etc. So instead of moving up a 4th, move down a 5th. You still land on C and now you're describing the mode correctly. If it helps. If it doesn't help, just ignore me and move on with your life. :-)
Joel Stucki Thanks Joel! I actually know the modes the traditional way as well, and understand the inversion principle, I just tend to be able to identify the modality of a tune by hearing it, and I find that thinking of the inversions gets me to my improv quicker. I know it’s “incorrect” but it does work for me. My brain must be wired backwards I guess. I do the same thing with Dorian. If I “hear” Dorian, I just play the natural minor a 5th above the tonic. So A Dorian= E Natural Minor in my backwards brain as well.
Steve Sheroan I'm the same way and most guitarist friends who I've discussed modes with are like this too. Also, dead on about how it's more the mode of country and that the "normal" Major 7th is rare on the radio.
Rick you are awesome. Iv’e been following you for about 1 - 2 year now and I love your channel. I’m guitarist first and foremost but I also do multi-instrumentalist just like you and just like you, I also produce and thus a studio guy - the difference is that I’m not as successful. Anyway, the reason I’m writing is that I got a lot from your channel and you have something for everyone - from beginner to advance. You breakdown songs and got awesome interviews. I never have anything in RU-vid as informative and enlightening as your channel. Keep up the good work!!!!
You are an incredible musician and very much the real deal sir. I cannot thank you enough for your content, you have a unique way of explaining very complex things in a very applicable way. One of the very few to be able to do so in my opinion, when Steve Vai says so it is absolute truth haha! You have truly helped me becoming a better guitar player, and most importantly musician in a short amount of time. RU-vid needs more people like you.
I'm always wanting to hit the shed after watching these vids...my playing and knowledge are jumping exponentially after every one! Thanks Rick!! Wish i could afford the Beato club and have you review a short symphonic piece i've done after watching these great tutorials, but alas...thats some serious cheddar....
Wow! I took music theory in school (50 years ago!), but never learned about the different modes. I heard so many songs in the samples you played. I've watched a few of your videos before, but I hit subscribe with this one! Thanks!!!
Some of the examples at the end remind me of Polish composer Henryk M. Gorecki. Some of his compositions included embellished native folk songs many of which were in Mixolydian/Aeolian modes which I happen to be a huge fan of so much so the standard major scale actually sounds off key to me :)
My first actual awareness playing in Mixolydian is when I started playing some keys on songs years ago and we learned "Roll With The Changes" by REO. I never understood where the Bb came from in C major...now I do.
I Love mixo- always have gravitated to it and use it often to the point where I have to deliberately move away from it. Great video Rick. Now I need a keyboard 🎹. 🙂
Yeah, now (again) I too want a keyboard! My 1st cousin invented the Prophet synth yet sadly he never offered to sell me one at a family discount. I can't afford Sequential's retail cost. Back in 81 Phil Collins told me "the Prophet is probably the best synthesizer ever made". Possibly, at the time. Great sounds (now referred to as tones, or tonality) from those. Boy, have I gotten old! Thanks, Rick for this post.
This is a very good and nice exploration of this mode made by fluid and transparant made chordprogressions. In this way I learn a lot simultanously with my autodidact course about intervals that you made live a few minutes ago. Thanks a lot, Rick.
Rick, one episode a day is like I live locked up on a campus of higher music learning :) Thank you ! As a pianist specifically interested in obtaining rich voicing choices from any scale, I was very happy to see you explain WHAT you were exactly doing mid video, in this mode - what chord progression within the mode, and which voicings /voicing tricks. Could you do such an explanatory video, outlining chords and voicings you opted for, about your dorian mode video (with the gorgeous film music you came up with) as well ? That way you open the application of the knowledge that you share to applications in piano voicings, synth arrangements, and orchestral writing.
On a 90's tv retrospective Paul McCartney said the Beatles were history's most successful Irish band. All 4 have Irish last names, and they grew up in Liverpool which had an Irish-immigrant community. Irish trad music is heavy with mixolydian mode. I was a teen in the Beatles era but I was also learning Scottish and Irish trad, and Beatles melodies used mixolydian mode comfortably in the same ways these old trad forms did --except for the modern twists they added on top of the framework.
I'm starting to learn music after 20 years of trial and error. Thank you for taking time to educate people like me. I can now better explain my ideas to those who can read music. I can create, but I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Thank you for your knowledge. Cheers!
I learned the Mixolydian mode without even knowing about 25 years ago with the pull-of riff of Thunderstruck by AC/DC (after the intro), it's all there except the 2nd degree. Great video as always, great sounds in it.
I don't always know exactly what you are talking about, but you sure make it interesting. And it makes me wonder why the heck didn't I learn how to play an instrument since I love music so much.
It's finally starting to click! I've been hard studying modes for roughly a week now, and they're finally beginning to make sense. I had to use several sources and hours of mindless noodling to put the pieces together and I've just had that eureka moment. I always knew of four of the shapes but never knew they were called modes, so that solved part of the problem, and then when I tried traveling my usual blues scales up the fretboard I realized that the modes are given numbers because that's literally where they fall on the major scale when traversing a monotone key. To someone that still doesn't get what I'm saying, it's because I'm not a teacher of the scale's, but if you want to learn the modes it's really not that hard to do if you follow the mode shapes in order, like a ladder, going up the fretboard with a made up bluesy-like major tune starting with Ionian(the major scale shape). Thank you Rick! Now I need to figure out how to use them in songwriting, and their triads, and the many other things that connect to them, like jazz.
Rick, i think i just learned more about music theory in 12 minutes than i have forgotten or ignored in the last 35ish years ... and i see other comments saying that they heard simple minds, verve, zappa, dead, etc in what you were playing. i kept hearing tears for fears ...
mixolidydian to me anyway is a major scale with one varied note for those of us without masters university level theory.this guy is an encyclopaedia of theory and awesomeness
5:08 what a gorgeous little solo, just beautiful.. I can spend a day working on that one piece,and learn more cool licks than your typical Black Sabbath Record. Thank you so much, your google ad sense checks are well earned, Rick, you’ve taught me more great things w these vids, Skype lessons would be a really tall order, I’m sure u are busy as hell.. I’d love someone to watch a few videos of me soloing and playing, and be able to criticize me,and show me what I need to work on... I tend to stay on the same scales, and need to expand my vocabulary.. u rock. Thanks again.
Mixolydian mode has A triumphant sound like going through trouble times in life and overcoming those obstacles that's why we love Rock music and Mixolydian mode or at least that's how I feel about it. cheers
I feel fine also has a D major, not just being raw mixolydian, D major borrows G ionian. G string 11th fret. Major V chords help give a distinguishingly more upwards resolving sound even with the edginess of mixolydian.
Here is a curiousity. In Brazil, the mixolydian mode is directly associated to the northeastern music of the country due to it's folk music being commonly in this scale. In mixolydian and also in dorian, both "greek" and gregorian modes. Lot of researches points that it's an effect of the catechism of the native tribes during the 17th and 18th centuries by portuguese monks. But there are controversies.
Thanks for sharing. I like your videos. You have a lot of knowledge. Have you talked about the harmony/chords of the modes? For instance the mixolydian mode.
I keep wanting the I in Mixolydian to resolve to its IV - which if course becomes the Ionian mode. I guess it's the combined tension of both the sus 4 and flat 7 that drive me back to the "real" tonic - not the I Mixolydian but the IV Ionian!
Rick I love all the theory but IMO the rise of Mixolydian in popular music is easily explained by the fact it occurs naturally for non-reading guitar players just noodling around...moving a chord shape up and down the neck over an open bass string or playing the various Sus4 chords that are right under your fingers on a guitar in std tuning...and the b7 sus4 just sounds good/cool to us so we kept doing it LOL. Celtic, Indian... Presto... the sound of rock!! By comparison there wasn’t a ‘Whole Lotta Mixolydian’ prior to the ‘50s and ‘60s... it was the rise of the electric guitar (and freaked-out parents) that made it happen. 😂
In reference to those who are mystified by modes. It is all in how you look at it. Rick takes a certain amount of theory for granted in this video. If you don't have that, there are other approaches and ways to understand what he is demonstrating here. Don't give up, you can do it but it takes effort for some of us who are late to class.
If modes were people, Mixo would be the charismatic, older brother who guides the family, while Lydian would be the quiet, melancholic younger brother with a sensitive soul. Together, they form an unstoppable force, the dom and the sub. Wait, that came out wrong.
There's a style called "Baião" here in Brazil that's mainly based on Mixolydian melodies, there's a song called "Asa Branca" from a singer called Luiz Gonzaga, that's pretty famous arround here and it can give you a good idea about this melody style, go and check it out, I think that you'll enjoy it.
Where was RU-vid when I was 19? Wow. Never before have so many educated people lived so freely and abundantly. And for 15 years, we have been connected to THIS shared, worldwide experience with near-instant communication . . . it is GUARANTEED to wake THIS generation up! Epochal Eclipse a CROSS the US April 8th 2024. Jubilee to forgive ALL THAT DEBT 09/23/26 or SOONER. Exercise FAITH to get in shape for THIS awakening.
when you play the keys with the violin sound I can hear a lot of scores from games and movies I recognise. One specific one is probably the score for Halo. It's got a lot of that same sort of feel which also really holds up to the style of the game itself. Another thing i sort of recognised was possibly Finding Nemo but i could be wrong with that. It seems as though Mixolydian is really a nice mode for use with a lot of spacey or open feelings. very interesting video none the less.
Hey Rick, love this one - as with pretty much all of 'em :-) Suggestion/request: I'd like to see a POV PIP (upper R-ish corner?) of the keyboard... It'd make it easier to grok the fingering - for me, anyway. Thanks, keep on keeping on :-)
E Mixolydian reminds me of a song by Yes, but I can't remember which one. It might have been Heart of the Sunrise, but it was definitely on the album Fragile
Here showing support after the ridiculous copyright claim. Love your work Rick. Sorry the greasy, greedy corporate scumbags are giving you a hard time.
I do a lot of horn arranging and long ago figured out that writing blues tunes in mixo saves a lot of accidentals.. and i hate having to write a bunch of accidentals. 😏
Fantastic with the note-illustrations to the left. How did you do that? How long have you played around with the scales? You seam to find the chords and tones so easy.
Here in Brasil the mixolydian mode its very used in the music of noerthest region, o Baião...de Luiz Gonzaga...rsrsrs mravilhoso. Baião uses mixo a lot...like Hermeto Pascoal. In Brasil, mixo its the sound of Baião...
