Pentania — Explore the harmonies

Scales › Lydian augmented (Lydian ♯5)

Lydian augmented (Lydian ♯5) scale

suspended Lydian ♯5

7 notes

guide tones (3rd & 7th — the heart of the sound) avoid (strong clash)

C · D · E · F# · G# · A · B

What color?

Lydian with an augmented fifth: #11 and #5 together give a floating, unreal major color, the sound of maj7#5. You go for it for an airy, expansive major, or on augmented chords with a bright color.

Origin & history

The third mode of the melodic minor: a Lydian with an augmented fifth, soaring and luminous. The color of choice over maj7♯5 chords, in jazz and film music.

Which chords to play it on?

The jazz consensus (Aebersold) recommends it on:

major seventh chord

Sibling modes

The Lydian augmented (Lydian ♯5) scale is one of the modes of the melodic minor : it shares exactly the same notes as the modes below, but built on a different degree of the parent scale (melodic minor).

melodic minor bright minor-major Dorian ♭2 (Phrygian ♮6) Dorian with a soft b9 Lydian dominant (Mixolydian ♯11, 4th mode of melodic minor) ♯11 dominant Mixolydian ♭6 (melodic major) major with a bittersweet ♭6 Locrian ♮2 (6th mode of melodic minor) half-diminished ♮9, more stable altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor) maximum altered tension

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →