Today I’d like to share with you something exotic… The Lydian-dominant is a strange-sounding scale I first heard being discussed by Joe Satriani in a Guitar World interview from about a decade ago. In that article, he showed how rock players can incorporate the scale into their soloing ideas. Being in a creative rut that time, I slowly learned it, until I was able to create endless melodic licks based purely on this scale, and substituting momentary lines into regular diatonic progressions.

The Lydian-dominant is named as such because it it is fact a Lydian scale (a major scale with a raised fourth) with a dominant seventh (like a regular dominant 7th chord).  In the key of C, it is thus spelled as C – D – E – F# (the raised 4th) – G – A – B-flat (the dominant 7th).

Theory-wise, the Lydian-dominant is in fact the fourth mode of the melodic-minor scale (which is like the regular Aeolian or natural minor scale, but with a raised 6th and 7th). The melodic-minor is a rather “happy”-sounding minor scale (as if that makes sense!), primarily because of the raised 6th and 7th intervals, but it also sounds quite unorthodox, because it ascends as is but descends like the natural minor.

When the great classical composers started to incorporate the melodic-minor into their compositions (Mozart used it quite a lot!), it opened so many new sound avenues for them. In the jazz world however, the use of the various melodic-minor modes is commonplace, most notably from bebop players like the virtuoso Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins (of Miles Davis’ band).

My ears twitch every time I hear this scale, because for the moment the line emphasizes the Lydian sound, it gets suddenly knocked off every time the flat 7th is invoked, and vice-versa. Thus for me at least it sounds kinda edgy, like a pushing-pulling kind of thing.

To illustrate, here is a goofball E Lydian-dominant lick I recorded on acoustic guitar. I played this with a low open-E drone in order to anchor the rest of the line into a firm harmonic foundation. Please have a listen.

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As with creating lines in any other scale, the best way to present the distinct color of this scale is to highlight the raised 4th and the flat 7th, and put this in the context of moving melodies that anchor the dominant and the subdominant (which, in this case, is the B and the A# notes).

Now that you have an idea how it sounds, how do we actually use it in a song context then? Well, I find the easiest way to incorporate this scale is to substitute it for the Mixolydian in a dominant chord setting. This means that if I have a song in the key of E-major, then during the progression where the V-chord (that is, B7) is played, then I can in fact replace a B-Mixolydian line (spelled as B – C# – D# – E – F# – G# – A) with a B Lydian-dominant one (spelled as B – C# – D# – E# (or F-natural) – F# – G# – A). This in essence changes just one note, and that is the E-note (!), which creates suspension that “disturbs” the calm Mixolydian into a tension-filled F-note.

In fact, the scale can be used in any dominant chord setting. This makes sense because the (unaltered) dominant chord is spelled 1 – 3 – 5 – flat-7, and this is where Mixolydian is normally utilized.

Additional reading and resources:

• Wikipedia: Lydian dominant scale discusses the basics.
• In chrisjuergensen.com: The Lydian Dominant Mode, the author discusses some excellent soloing approaches.
• In Music Theory: Jazz Scales: Melodic Minor Harmony: Lydian Dominant Scale, the possibility of interpreting and using the scale as a 7-flat-5 chord rather than a 7-raised-fourth (or 7-raised-11th) is explored.
• In Lydian-Dominant Theory for Improvisation, the possibilities for using the scale are expanded into the “freer” no-holds-barred territory of the symmetrical whole-tone and 12-tone row. (Warning: This page contains some hardcore music theory stuff!)

Try it yourself. Start slowly. I guess it gets a little disorienting at first, but eventually your ears will learn to become familiar with it. Practice, persevere and conquer!