Phrygian

The Phrygian mode belongs to the III chord!

Phrygian is probably the easiest mode to recognize, its semitone interval between:

Root – b2nd and the 5th – b6th, gives it a flavor that lends itself well to fast and aggressive playing.

Should you play Phrygian with a lot of distortion and play it very quickly you would fit well into the heavy metal scene.

On a nylon strung guitar you would enter the wonderful world of Flamenco music.

The scale formula for Phrygian is as usual achieved by adding notes to the minor pentatonic:

Character: Phrygian is often referred to as having a Spanish and/or dark sound

Soloing: Use Phrygian when you play “Spanish sounding” influenced solos or whenever you play over the III chord.

Practice The Phrygian mode like this:

1. Chord shape
2. Minor Pentatonic
3. add b2nd
4. Minor Pentatonic
5. add b6th
6. Minor Pentatonic
7. Phrygian
8. Chord shape

Always use a metronome, always push BPM!

To see the Phrygian mode move around the guitar neck in different keys and shapes, use Chordacus.

Phrygian Mode History

In ancient Greece theory the Phrygian mode was called Dorian and Dorian was called Phrygian. The terminology was swapped around in Medieval times and Phrygian became the host of chord III.

In classical and modern music we find Phrygian being manipulated into Phrygian Dominant whenever the III chord is followed by a VI chord thats need a little extra push.

It’s worth noting how the Phrygian mode only differs to Aeolian by one interval, the b2 vs the 2. As well as this, only one note away is Locrian with its b5 instead of a natural 5th.

Seen this way it is clear how the more you flatten a scales intervals, the darker it gets.

Learn more about the history of Phrygian from Wikipedia. In order to play it on the guitar, practice according to the video exercises.