Hello Alan,
I guess you've heard of George Russell's "Lydian Chromatic Concept", though I don't use all of his stuff, the idea of the Lydian being harmonically central (rather than Ionian) is one that I build all my thinking around because if you take the modal scales starting at the Lydian, they can be arranged from brighter to darker. I have never found a reason why the Ionian should be 'central' to Western music, except that our ears have been cultured to accept this. I have never found a 'theoretical' reason.

You probably know this but for others:

(important note: The keyboard and western notation is design skewed towards making the IONIAN scale the one with no alterations (the C Ionian Scale). In what follows the Lydian is central)

Lydian (try to see the augmented fourth as the 'real' or unflattened fourth) Brightest scale
Ionian ( as above and flattening this 'real' fourth) 1st alteration
Myxolydian (as above and flattening the seventh) 2nd Alteration
Dorian (as above and flattening the third) 3rd Alteration
Aeolian (as above and flattening the 6th) 4th Alteration
Phrygian (as above and flattening the 2nd) 5th Alteration
Locrian (as above and flattening the 5th) 6th Alteration. Darkest Scale

7th Alteration?

Next all notes flattened which means the whole original Lydian scale goes down a semitone. Perpetuating in this way(using equal temperament) eventually all the 84 diatonic modal scales are described.

Roots are a descending fourth/ascending P5th from each other, each step the sound of the scale is darker.

Z



Last edited by ZeroZero; 01/16/15 08:23 PM.
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