Today we know F Lydian Mode as closely resembling the F Major scale. The main difference is that F Major has a B flat in the scale while F Lydian doesn’t.
Let’s take at look at the F Major scale on the treble clef below…
And now F Lydian…
As you can see it’s identical except the difference between the B flat and B natural notes.
Now let’s compare them on the piano keyboard…
F Major…
F Lydian highlighted in red…
As you can see, F Lydian is essentially all the white keys on the piano from F to F. No B Flat, but rather B natural.
The steps that make up F Lydian are Whole, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half.
So you can move the root or tonic note of the scale to any starting point and apply those steps.
For example, C Lydian would look like this…
Until next time practice building and playing your Lydian Modes!
Thank you for this
Happy Holiday
This maybe a rookie question but why another scale? What advantages does the Lydian Mode offer?
Thanks
A lot of music is known as major or minor keys. Or Ionian or aeolian mode. And written within those parameters. While there are many different types of scales, think of modal music as just another way of adding variety and flavor to scales and therefore the music they are based on.