In this video you can hear me playing a piece of music I improvised and named Hanging in Twilight. I was absorbed by the suspended, mysterious and unresolved sound of both the modes, finding myself in a half-light, liminal space, at times unsettled, at other times floating. It felt like lingering between daytime and nighttime, with darkness pulling at the edges, with the remaining starbursts of light creating distorted extra-long shadows. A stretched out moment of hanging between two times.

I started this improvisation in F Mixolydian flat 6 which often sounds like twilight to me due to its combination of light major 3rd and dark minor 6th and 7th degrees. It doesn’t have the bright pull towards the tonic of the leading note (major 7th degree) found in a standard major scale. Instead its Mixolydian flattened 7th softens that drive towards resolution, while the flattened 6th creates a dark shadow over the whole sound. But the light hasn’t completely disappeared, because the major 3rd still provides a glow. 

The A flat Lydian sharp 2 mode also refuses to resolve — in standard major and minor scales the perfect 4th is necessary for stability and resolution, but instead, in Lydian modes, like the Lydian sharp 2, the augmented 4th creates a suspended, gravity-defying and unsettled sound. The augmented 2nd adds a dark unease whilst being paradoxically bright due to its expansiveness. 

Mode Table

Mode	Note Names	Parent Scale	Modal Relationship
F Mixolydian ♭6	F – G – A – B♭ – C – D♭ – E♭	B♭ Melodic Minor	5th mode of B♭ Melodic Minor
A♭ Lydian ♯2	A♭ – B – C – D – E♭ – F – G	C Harmonic Minor	6th mode of C Harmonic Minor

Interval Formulas

Mixolydian ♭6 Mode Formula:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7

Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Minor 7th

Lydian ♯2 Mode Formula:

1 – ♯2 – 3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – 7

Root, Augmented 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th

Further Reading and Listening

Learn more about modes here: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales

Neptune’s Midnight Rain — Improvisation in D Aeolian, E♭ Lydian, D Phrygian & G Aeolian

Elegy for the Edge of Indigo — Improvisation in B♭ Aeolian, D Lydian ♯2 & D Lydian

Riding the Undercurrent — Improvisation in D Lydian ♯2, B Dorian & B Aeolian