Bass Modes: Phrygian Dominant

What’s a Phrygian…and why is it so Dominant? Well, if you’re looking for a scale to spice up your playing, this one might just be for you. Move over Phrygian, make way for the more exotic Phrygian Dominant!

The Phrygian Dominant Scale

This scale is sometimes described as a “mode of the harmonic minor scale”…but as I explained earlier about modes, thinking about them as modes “of so and so scale” isn’t always the easiest way to understand them. What you really want to know is: “What notes are in this scale, and how do you use it?”, right?

If you’ve already read last weeks article about the Phrygian Mode, that’s great because that’s the scale we’re going to start with.

Here is the scale formula for the Phrygian mode:

1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

So, if we start the scale from a C, we get these notes:

C Db Eb F G Ab Bb

…and here’s the bass tab:


G ---------------------------(8)-10-
D --------------------8-10-11-------
A ----------8-10-11-----------------
E -8-9-(11)-------------------------

See the notes I’ve highlighted? Those are the ones we’re going to change to make the standard Phrygian, become a Phrygian Dominant. It’s the minor third (the b3 in the scale formula), which we’re going to turn into a major third (a natural 3).

So here is our new scale formula:

1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7

So, if we start the new scale from a C, we now get these notes:

C Db E F G Ab Bb

…and here’s that in tab:


G -----------------------9-10-
D ---------------8-10-11------
A -----7-8-10-11--------------
E -8-9------------------------

The Small Things

Seems like only a tiny adjustment, huh? Just one note out of 7…

It really is the small things that can make a huge difference here. Don’t believe me? Play the original, Phrygian mode. Got that sound in your head? Good! Now play the Phrygian Dominant.

Kinda different, isn’t it? Kinda…even weirder sounding…

Using the Scale

This scale has almost exactly the same “target notes” as it’s twin, the Phrygian Mode. So there’s the minor second and the (new) major third…but you can also see this scale as fitting over a dominant 7 chord (hence the name “Phrygian Dominant“)- therefore you could also add the minor 7th to the list of important scale tones.

Here is a C dominant 7 (a.k.a. C7) arpeggio to go with the C Phrygian Dominant scale tabbed above:


G -------------9-
D --------8-10---
A ---7-10--------
E -8-------------

This is a great scale to use if you want to add a touch of interest to your standard major, or dominant 7th chords!

Rob.

August 23, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Bass Scales | No comments