what’s the Mixo.Lydian mode and who cares?
Joes care for one…
Joe Satriani, Joe Walsh for instance.
if MixoLydian sounds too nerdy — just listen to the above two songs and you’ll hear it and feel the need to play it.
Summer Song has a rhythm guitar strumming the A major chord, yet Satriani’s melody line comes from a D major scale — that’s the mixoLydian for ya…
Rocky Mountain Way spends a lot of time with an E major in the background, yet Walsh plays most of his lead lines from the A major scale — that’s the mixoLydian for ya…
put simply, here’s how it works…
to get that MixoLydian sound…take the Harmonized Major Scale…find your rhythm chord (in Summer Song that would be A, in Rocky Mountain Way that would be E) as the 5th (V) chord in a harmonized major scale and then track your way back to the Tonic (or I).
here’s a couple examples…[for more, just check out my lesson on the Harmonized Major Scale] (it’s lined up a lot better than the following….)
I – ii - iii – IV – V – vi - vii
A Bmi C#mi D E F#mi G#dim
D Emi F#mi G A B C#dim
