A Look At Arabic Music Scales, This is very intresting Options

[bandar]

Hello Mac Musicians.... :-)

I am a new member and this is my first post...

I am a music composer from Saudi Arabia (I have nothing to do with terrorism or politics) and i came to find that most musicians in the western world do not have a good idea about the richness of arabic music...

I am so much in favor of arabic music, because it is very rich in term of scales and styles... as i studied music, i came to find out that western music has two main scales (major and minor) and few other sub scales (as harmonic and jazz and few others i do not recall). On the other hand, Arabic music has over 8 main scales, and a total of 99 (main and sub) scales... not to forget that a new scale was invented (and certified) three years ago, taking the number to a total of one-hundred scales.

Western music is based on the (half tone distance), Arabic music is based on the (quarter tone distance) meaning that between every two notes (next to each other like C and C#) in the western scale, there is an extra note in the arabian scale...( which is C "half sharp" )

One other great thing is that the two main western scales (Major and Minor) are among the eight main scales of arabian music, fitting perfectly with the other ones, and named AJAM for Major and NAHAWAND for Minor...

One good website explaining Arabic scales is : http://www.maqamworld.com/

the word MAQAM is the arabic word for Scale (or Key signature).

this website is listing 40 of the 100 scales with MIDI and Notation samples and i think it is a very good resource for learning about Arabic Music...

Let me know what you guys think......

Enjoy,

[Jaysee]

Hi,
One of the best resources I've ever come across re scale construction from a 'western' classical point of view, is Nicholas Slonimsky's exhaustive "Thesaurus of scales and melodic patterns", it must cover just about every possible permutation of notes under the sun! I know a few 'jazzers' friends who've found it useful. I'm sure someone told me that John Coltrane studied it for a while, but I may be wrong.
Also the guitarist Allan Holdsworth had an instructional video/book published a few years ago outlining his unique, personal take on what he termed the 10 most useful scales for improvising (although they barely scratch the surface of what that guy plays, amazin' player!) It's called "Just for the curious" That one is well worth a look for keyboard players as well as guitarists.