What makes Dm/E sound Phrygian?
I was told by a jazz pianist that you can play Dm/E if you play in E Phrygian.
What makes Dm/E sound Phrygian? To me Am or Am7 would be a better chord for Phrygian but then I probably think of Phrygian in terms of church music theory and not jazz theory.
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Dm/E contains the pitches DEFA.
One can "fill in the blanks" with passing tones: say, GB and C.
The resulting scale is DEFGABC.
"Permuting" the scale gives EFGABCD, which is E Phrygian (in the modern sense, rather than the Gregorian sense).
The pitches of the Dm chord are "embedded" within the E Phrygian scale, just as they are with C Major or D Dorian. But the bass E suggests the possibility of E as the tonic.
Depending on context, your could "fill" Dm/E with other passing tones. For example, EFGABbCD, which would be E Locrian, origination from F major. Alternatively, EFG#ABCD, which would come from the A harmonic minor scale.
The characteristic tones of phrygian are flat 2 and perfect 5. They distinguish phrygian from aeolian and locrian.
Dm/E is E - D - F - A. Note E in bass suggests E is root. Other notes come from phrygian scale, in particular F is flat 2.
Note B or perfect 5 is missing, so in principal Dm/E doesn't distinguish phrygian from locrian (which would have Bb, flat 5), but as for most ears locrian sounds exotic, phrygian would be the first interpretation.
Am7 is certainly a valid chord for E-phrygian (or A-phrygian, I'm not sure which one you meant), but it doesn't contain its characteristic tones so it doesn't emphasize the mode.
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