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Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
The Lydian mode's signature is the raised 4 (♯11) —
the one note that distinguishes Lydian from ordinary major. The
cleanest voicing to capture that ♯11 colour is to stack the
II major triad on top of the I bass. For C Lydian:
D/C. The D triad's three notes (D, F♯, A) supply the 9, ♯11, and
13 of the underlying I chord — all the upper-structure tensions in
one familiar major-triad shape.
Both hands play whole notes. The vamp is meant to not
change — Lydian is a place to live, not a place to leave.
RH II triad. Notes become 9, ♯11, 13 of the I.
Jump to
C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B E A D G
D
/
C
X
X
X
5fr
D
/
C
X
X
X
5fr
G
/
F
X
X
X
3fr
G
/
F
X
X
X
3fr
C
/
B
X
X
X
3fr
C
/
B
X
X
X
3fr
F
/
E
X
X
X
8fr
F
/
E
X
X
X
8fr
E
/
D
X
X
X
6fr
E
/
D
X
X
X
6fr
A
/
G
X
X
X
4fr
A
/
G
X
X
X
4fr
C
/
B
X
X
X
4fr
C
/
B
X
X
X
4fr
F
/
E
X
X
X
9fr
F
/
E
X
X
X
9fr
E
/
D
X
X
X
7fr
E
/
D
X
X
X
7fr
A
/
G
X
X
O
2fr
A
/
G
X
X
O
2fr
The Daily Drill
Just hover
4 min Pick one key. Play the vamp for 16 bars. Don't resolve it. Lydian is a destination, not a transit. Let the chord just sit there. 8 min Cycle three keys. The triad-over-bass shape is the same in every key; only the absolute notes transpose. 3 min Improvise an RH melody using only Lydian-mode notes (the key's major scale + ♯4). Land on chord tones (1, 3, 5, ♯4, 7) on downbeats; let the rest be passing. 3 min Apply: try the last eight bars of Joe Henderson's Inner Urge — maj7♯11 chords planing in whole steps, each one exactly this II-over-I sonority. (Metheny's Bright Size Life uses the sibling IV-over-V sus sound, if you want the contrast.) Why II triad and not, say, the IV The IV triad over I (F/C in C Lydian) only contributes the 4 — the natural perfect 4th, which clashes with the I chord's 3rd. The II triad (D/C) sits a whole step above, and its three notes are diatonic to Lydian (and only to Lydian — F♯ is not in C major). So the II triad supplies the unique Lydian colour in a single hand-shape. The IV triad is for sus chords, not Lydian.
Triad above. Bass below. No need to move; you're already there.