The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104594   Message #2145787
Posted By: GUEST,Don Firth
10-Sep-07 - 04:43 PM
Thread Name: Freygish Scale?
Subject: RE: Freygish Scale?
Phygian mode is used a lot in flamenco because it lies very well on the guitar. A typical chord progression in first position (using open-string chords) is Am – G – F (full bar) – E. If you listen to much flamenco, you'll hear it a lot.

Also, that progression works well with the verse of Greensleeves:

A-[Am] las, my love, you [G] do me wrong
To [F] cast me off dis-[E] courteously,
For [Am] have lovéd [G] you so long,
De-[F] lighting [E] in your [Am] company.

Same progression on the chorus, using C instead of Am, but returning to an Am at the end.

Greensleeves is not in Phrygian mode (some notes don't fit the scale—it leans more toward harmonic minor with hints of Dorian mode), but the progression works. Very "guitaristic."

Don Firth