Phrygian has a sound much like the minor scale but with a darker edge. A common choice in metal, prog and hip-hop, Phrygian introduces an exotic, unnerving sound to a song's tonality. Today we're going to look at some examples of the phrygian mode in action and also look at some similar scales including the Double Harmonic scale and Phrygian Dominant.

📍 CORRECTION 1: at 4:45 the sheet music for “Milkshake” should show three Ds before descending to C#, not just one! Sorry about that and thanks to Asle Fjeldstad for bringing it to my attention.

📍 CORRECTION 2: at 11:05 I said that "Misirlou" started as an Arabic folk song, but in fact it seems it was Greek. Thanks to Theo Querel for bringing that to my attention.

SOURCES:
Phrygian mode in Kendrick’s “HUMBLE”:    • The Phrygian Mode in Kendrick Lamar -...  
Early version of “Misirlou”:    • The original Misirlou - Μισιρλού (Τέτ...  
12 tone analysing “White Rabbit”:    • Understanding White Rabbit  
Listening In analysing “Pyramid Song”:    • Radiohead: Pyramid Song - Analysis  


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0:00 What does Phrygian sound like?
1:00 Metal
3:00 Hip hop
5:00 Phrygian is a mode
6:28 Modal mixture
8:19 Phrygian's "middle eastern" sound
11:00 Phrygian dominant
13:00 Modal ambiguity
15:05 Piano outro