middle eastern scales

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 10:49 pm

i know that in the luther college tab bood theres an interview with timmy and him where they get to talking about 'middle eastern scales'
i know like what song theyre in... the last stop, minarets, etc
and there are a bunch of others but i cant think of any off the top of my head
i was wondering what scales these are

thanks

firedancer86 · Post by **firedancer86** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 10:50 pm

minors maybe?

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 10:57 pm

perhaps....
i have no idea cause i have very little theory knowledge

fatjack · Post by **fatjack** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 11:05 pm

oh i got this one fire...

there many scales in music that can be considered "middle eastern". your best bet is the harmonic minor scale and its modes. for example, here's g harmonic minor: G A Bb C D Eb F# when you play this scale, listen to the interval between Eb and F#, its really middle eastern sounding.

the truth is middle eastern music is a whole different ballgame from western music. i'll use indian music as an example. i don't know much about it but i'll give you what i know.

in india there no such thing as scales, rather they are called ragas. the biggest difference is that in ragas, certain sequences of notes can only be played ascending or descending. an example of this i'm sure everyone knows is Minarets. that little four note, half step run wouldn't sound as middle eastern if it were ascending.

the closest thing to this i know of in western music is the melodic minor scale, which ascends one way and descends another way (although its not that middle eastern sounding).

the best way to discover scales on your own is to do this: try wide intervals (like three or four frets up), and half step chromatic runs-ascending and descending.

i plan to learn more on the subject. but for now, thats all i know...

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 11:27 pm

thanks jack
thats some really interesting stuff

bugman96 · Post by **bugman96** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 5:12 pm

Code: Select all

|----|-----|-----|----|----
|----|-----|-----|----|----
|----|-----|-----|----|----
|----|--X--|-----|--X-|----
|--X-|--X--|-----|--X-|--X-
|----|--X--|--X--|----|----

That's basically what The Last Stop and parts of Minarets are based on

fatjack · Post by **fatjack** » Thu Jul 10, 2003 5:16 pm

that's phrygian major, a mode of harmonic minor.