Any help here is appreciated. The other day I was messing around on guitar and stumbled on a group of notes that had a mid-eastern vibe (to me). The notes I played were E, F, G#, A, B, C and D (though I'm still not sure I 'like' that D in there). I found myself emphasising the 'E' note.
I'm below even a novice when it comes to theory and modes, and I tried looking up what scale that might be, both with and without the 'D' note, and have come up empty. Thanks, all.
Dan
That scale is known as the 'Phrygian Dominant' scale as well as having a few other names. There was a post on it recently about its use in Flamenco.
Edit: If you don't like that D, try D# which makes it the Byzantine scale (also known by other names) which sounds even more Mid-Eastern.
Fretsource, thank you! It would have taken me forever to find that out on my own, looking through the reference books. I'm going sharp that D and see how that sounds tonight. Thanks again for the help.
Dan
Just to let you know -- any ordered series of notes that cover an octave is a scale. CDE is a scale. Now, it's kind of a silly scale, but it's a scale. So is CE, CFGA, CB#Db, and any other ordered series of notes you can think of that cover an octave.
There is no requirement that a scale have a certain number of notes in it, there is no requirement that it only use whole or half steps, are the notes ordered (alpha order) and are the limited to the coverage of an octave from the point of a base note (C in all of my above examples).
So for example, BCF would not be a scale with respect to C, but would be a scale with respect to B. Nor would it be a scale with respect a, say Ab, as Ab is not even there.
For musical purposes, the most important scales are the major, minor, diminished, augmented and whole-tone scales, as well as the pentatonic major and minor scales. Mastery of those scales will allow one to play practically any other scale one can think of by thinking in terms of an alteration of an existing known scale rather than in terms of one more new, independent scale.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Kingpatzer, thanks for the explanation. I'm just starting to get confident enough to get into theory, modes, etc. I know the major scale and pentatonics major and minor, but I've always been kind of intimidated by everything else. Thanks for the tip on learning the 'important' scales, and then learning new scales as slight alterations of those. That was extremely helpful and enlightening!
Dan
GuitarHack,
Misanthrope, off these boards, made this site you might find useful - http://chordsandscales.co.uk/finder/
You can type in a series of notes, and it will then tell you the names of any scales those notes might belong to, and gives you the full scale for each one listed. Does the same thing for chords, if you want, as well.
It wasn't much use in the thread I made 'name that chord' because I'd chosen a weird bunch of notes (pretty much every note on a keyboard, making it difficult to diagnose possible scales), but that doesn't usually happen.
Anyways, hope it helps.
Scrybe, that DOES help and thank you very much. Looking through my scale book at home just wasn't cutting it. This is a great reference tool!
Dan
ah, Misanthrope's the one to thank, I've seriously no idea how he went about writing it. Web-people amaze me.
Well, thanks for bringing it to my attention then. And thanks, Misanthrope, should you happen upon this thread. That page is going to save me a lot of time and head-aches!
Dan
No worries, sorry I didn't notice the question earlier :)
Scrybe: I'm a nerd really, I only play guitar to try to be cool ;)
Scrybe: I'm a nerd really, I only play guitar to try to be cool ;)
Really? Cos I'm superkewl really, and I only play guitar to try to be a bit more nerdy. :lol: :lol:
Seriously mate, being able to do webstuff is kewl, I just lack the ability and/or motivation (I get guitar withdrawal and my hands start twitching, really plays havoc with my fumbling attempts to write code....also fully explains any typos I make on GN :wink: )
Yeah, I know the feeling, I'm pretty torn between the two most of the time, and never get done as much as I'd like to do in either. Then there's all the other interests that aren't quite as strong as those two :roll: If you ever give it a shot, feel free to bombard me with questions :)
