Here is a video in which you can hear me playing a piece of music I improvised and named Sunlit Door of Shadow. In my mind the A Lydian mode is bright, golden, and floaty like sunlight, and the one note that defines that sunlit sound within the mode happened to be the tonic of the dark and melancholy E♭ Aeolian mode — the sunlight was the doorway to the shadows. Even though moving from one space to the other was like being in two different worlds, they were part of the same universe, and the light became the darkness.
I started this improvisation in A Lydian, which is bright, expansive and gravity-defying due to its augmented 4th degree — D♯.
Then I modulated to the dark, mournful and weighty E flat Aeolian, which is worlds away from A Lydian due to its distant position on the cycle of fifths. However the bright augmented 4th of the A Lydian mode — the D♯, which gives its Lydian character, is the enharmonic equivalent of the tonic of E♭ Aeolian — i.e. E♭ and D♯ are the same note. In this way, the very note that gave the A Lydian mode its sunlight, became the doorway to the sorrowful darkness of the E flat Aeolian mode.
Mode Table
| Mode | Note Names | Parent Scale | Modal Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Lydian | A – B – C♯ – D♯ – E – F♯ – G♯ | E Major | 4th mode of E Major |
| E♭ Aeolian | E♭ – F – G♭ – A♭ – B♭ – C♭ – D♭ | G♭ Major | 6th mode of G♭ Major |
Interval Formulas
Lydian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – 7
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
Aeolian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Minor 7th
Further Reading and Listening
Learn more about modes here: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
