Phrygian dominant major 3rd compatibility

by Carlos Faraco
(Athens, GA, USA)

Question: On the Spanish scale backing tracks section, I am a bit confused as to why you say the major 3rd is incompatible with the other chords, except for the G chord of course. F and Am triads can both be composed from the notes in either the Phrygian dominant (Spanish) or minor scales.

From the Phrygian dominant / Spanish scale lesson:

"Below is another backing track written for using Phrygian and the Spanish scale. It's in the key of E, so you can play the Spanish scale over the E chord when it starts. However, when the chords change, some notes in the scale may become incompatible. In this case, it's just the major 3rd that should be an avoid note on chords other than that starting E chord.

So both Spanish and Minor Phrygian would be played in the key of E, as the chords are part of that same modal sequence in the key of E. It's just the major 3rd which causes the incompatibility with the other chords, because we've effectively replaced E minor with E major as the dominant chord in this sequence."

Could you please clarify? Is this something specific to the scales or is this something specific to how the track itself was written?

Thanks,

Carlos

Answer

Excellent question! Firstly, you're absolutely right, the F major and A minor triads are part of the E phrygian dominant "chord scale" (chords built on the degrees of the E phrygian dominant scale).

Using the major 3rd of E phrygian dominant over F major produces a #9 flavour.

Using it over A minor produces a min/maj7 flavour.

However, we have to look at this note in the context of the chord progression, using our ears to judge whether it flows well.

If you play the major 3rd of E major over F major, with E major as the tonic, there is a rather dissonant sound there. As I think you understood, G major is not even part of the E phrygian dominant scale so what this does is create a minor phrygian context in relation to the A minor and F major chords.

Because of these dissonances and because of the presence of that G major chord, I suggested minor phrygian would be a better fit over the other chords - the minor 3rd of E phrygian sounds more natural over the sequence of non-tonic chords and it gives that major 3rd over the tonic E chord more harmonic weight.

Of course, I am hoping you will experiment and decide for yourself what fits and what doesn't. As a passing tone (non-chord tone), the major 3rd in E phrygian dominant could be used over F major and A minor, but you have to be confident with using them in this way and be prepared to experiment with different ways of leading through the chord changes, especially when there are "outside" chords such as G major in this example.

Hope this helps!