Phrygian vs. Phrygian Dominant

Both of these start on C, and both hold the flat second that gives Phrygian its unmistakable, unsettled sound - the half-step down from the tonic that no other minor mode has.

C Phrygian holds a flat third against the tonic - the darker of the two.Hear C Phrygian in the app

C Phrygian Dominant raises that third by a semitone, into major.Hear C Phrygian Dominant in the app

The wheel makes the difference positional rather than verbal: the third-degree wedge sits one wedge further clockwise in Phrygian Dominant, and the spoke drawn from the center recolors to the interval that degree now forms with the tonic. Everything else on the two wheels is identical.

That single degree is the whole difference between a minor mode and what is really a major third sitting one half-step above a flat second - the gap listeners hear as “exotic,” and the reason Phrygian Dominant turns up under names like the Spanish or Gypsy scale. Reading the two side by side is one thing; the difference is much more obvious held under a drone, which is what the links under each figure are for.