How can I write something in Lydian?

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   I've been playing guitar for around 7-8 years, but only recently I took it a lot more seriously and looked for a good teacher and now I'm taking lessons.
I'm trying to write something progressive. It's kinda sounding jazzy. I don't know how I got it to sound this way, but I've been working with my not-so-thorough-yet theoretical knowledge. It kinda has many moods to it, which is exactly what I want.

The song is mainly in natural minor with a Phrygian part and a brief diminished part (at the end of the solo leading to the Phrygian part). Again I don't know how I got it to sound this way, but I mainly just followed my ear and experimented with stuff I usually don't venture into.

So now I'm trying to include a Lydian part, but for whatever reason the melodies I'm writing seem to want to be in the relative major of my key. It just doesn't sound right. The song is in E but particularly with the Lydian part it wants to go to B major, and it's sounding nothing like Lydian.

I've been struggling with this for a while. I'm hoping someone can help a bit with this.

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Deathshade Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Newbie Joined: December 07 2015 Location: Israel Status: Offline Points: 11	Topic: How can I write something in Lydian? Posted: December 08 2015 at 16:51
	I've been playing guitar for around 7-8 years, but only recently I took it a lot more seriously and looked for a good teacher and now I'm taking lessons. I'm trying to write something progressive. It's kinda sounding jazzy. I don't know how I got it to sound this way, but I've been working with my not-so-thorough-yet theoretical knowledge. It kinda has many moods to it, which is exactly what I want. The song is mainly in natural minor with a Phrygian part and a brief diminished part (at the end of the solo leading to the Phrygian part). Again I don't know how I got it to sound this way, but I mainly just followed my ear and experimented with stuff I usually don't venture into. So now I'm trying to include a Lydian part, but for whatever reason the melodies I'm writing seem to want to be in the relative major of my key. It just doesn't sound right. The song is in E but particularly with the Lydian part it wants to go to B major, and it's sounding nothing like Lydian. I've been struggling with this for a while. I'm hoping someone can help a bit with this.

Polymorphia Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: November 06 2012 Location: here Status: Offline Points: 8856	Posted: December 08 2015 at 17:16
	You have to find some way to make it feel like the tonal center is E. The most common way is just use an E pedal tone with the Lydian melody (it can be in the bass, but it doesn't have to be). You could also use a cadence (i v7 i) or a ii v7 i (these might sound too pedestrian depending on what you're going for, but you can substitute in a flat ii for the v7 if you wanted to make it sound more interesting). You could also set up the chord progression so that it begins and ends on E. Or you could avoid B and Ab altogether in the bass part so it never feels like it resolves to those. Tell me if any of this is confusing. Also, this mode is worth checking out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_mode With the structure of the mode, any of the four notes whose perfect fifths are also in the mode could be the tonal center, thus making it feel like it doesn't have to resolve. I use this one quite a bit. Edited by Polymorphia - December 08 2015 at 17:24
	My Music

Davesax1965 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: May 23 2013 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 2839	Posted: January 12 2016 at 07:41
	If you choose to "write something progressive" and then think, oh, I know... Lydian.... you are forcing the music to conform to an idea. Just have the idea first and the music will look after itself.