egzotic music of middle and far east. basics?

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bigfootangel

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hi there,
i began to research the egzotic music of middle and far east. it is wonderful..
could you please help to understand the basics pf harmony structures of such music. basic theory, building structures..

Egyptian airiness is usually achieved by phrygian mode, right?

chinese use simply pentatonics alot, right?

arabian often achieved by 5th mode of harmonic minor, so its aeolian harmonic minor, right?
heres cool info aswell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndgd0kEeObk

but that is very limiting, i hear a lot more than that.. could you please help understanding that stuff.
ANY tips and tricks are appreciated !

danke, amigos

samm
 
I'm no expert samm, but you probably need to deal with microtonal tuning which is hard stuff. You can't use a normally tuned western instrument so unless you do slide guitar, violin or you are a very talented vocalist you'll have to take up a non-tempered tuning instrument like they talk about in the video you posted. Some soft synths have microtonal abilities also. Or you could google microtonal tuning tutorials, looks like there is a lot of that. Good luck.
 
yes, mate. but some of that microtonal stuff can be achieved by string bending etc..
i guess its very important to let yourself go, surrender to emotions to everything and let that music drive you endlessly.. feel the vibe, the mood , the idea of such music..
lets go crazy with these bellydance women;)

god bless, thanks

btw egyptian scale, can this scale be related to any mode???:
C D Eb Fdiez G Ab B

so egyptian chords:
Cm Db5 Eb+ Fdiezsus2b5 G Ab Bm


cool links:
http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat/sikah.html#bastanikar

https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/1yif41/what_makes_a_piece_sound_middle_easternarabic/

http://leb.net/rma/Articles/Samaie_Farhafza.pdf
 
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bigfootangel said:
yes, mate. but some of that microtonal stuff can be achieved by string bending etc..
i guess its very important to let yourself go, surrender to emotions to everything and let that music drive you endlessly.. feel the vibe, the mood , the idea of such music..
lets go crazy with these bellydance women;)

god bless, thanks

btw egyptian scale, can this scale be related to any mode???:
C D Eb Fdiez G Ab B

so egyptian chords:
Cm Db5 Eb+ Fdiezsus2b5 G Ab Bm


cool links:
http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat/sikah.html#bastanikar

https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/1yif41/what_makes_a_piece_sound_middle_easternarabic/

http://leb.net/rma/Articles/Samaie_Farhafza.pdf
Click to expand...

C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B-C is a C harmonic minor scale. I don't know what you mean by "diez".
 
sorry, diez means sharp, often in europe.
so egyptian scale is minor with harmonic raised 7th + added lydian sharp4 in it...right?
so its relative major will be Eb , right? so we can call it Eb "Phrygian major scale" with added lydian 4th, right? also it could be a altered G Phrygian Dominant Scale??
interesting airy mixture....

thanks brother

sam

btw , im drowning with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_7RIrMzewU

;)
 
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bigfootangel said:
sorry, diez means sharp, often in europe.
so egyptian scale is minor with harmonic raised 7th + added lydian sharp4 in it...right?
so its relative major will be Eb , right? so we can call it Eb "Phrygian major scale" with added lydian 4th, right? also it could be a altered G Phrygian Dominant Scale??
interesting airy mixture....





thanks brother

sam

btw , im drowning with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_7RIrMzewU

;)
Click to expand...

You are right I believe. This stuff tends to get laborious. To me it depends on what you are trying to do. If you're going to play jazz you need to learn this stuff and then jam endlessly with it until you can do it by ear. If you are composing, you can be a little less rigorous and apply it as needed to what you are trying to create IMHO.

I sampled some of the vid you linked to, neat stuff but I didn't hear any microtonal, it sounded a bit western, not a bad thing certainly.

Do you have any tunes posted here? Here's one of mine. https://homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/music-video-production/experimental-music-video-what-do-you-think-389104/
 
well that sharp 4th is a bit pain in the ass but if used tastefully gives a nice ride around the root.. and that raised 7th is egyptian king!!! damn pharaoh on the G drone..!

and yes these vids are very westernized but cool anyway.
well, i dont have my tunes yet but im gonna record some stuff soon..

gracies amigo
 
bigfootangel said:
well that sharp 4th is a bit pain in the ass but if used tastefully gives a nice ride around the root.. and that raised 7th is egyptian king!!! damn pharaoh on the G drone..!

and yes these vids are very westernized but cool anyway.
well, i dont have my tunes yet but im gonna record some stuff soon..

gracies amigo
Click to expand...

Sharp 4 is "Diabolus in Musica" from a medieval Western standpoint at least, use at your own risk unless you are Charlie Parker or Slayer I guess. Major 7th is a pop music favorite, lots of hits there.
 
Ingo Lee said:
Sharp 4 is "Diabolus in Musica" from a medieval Western standpoint at least, use at your own risk unless you are Charlie Parker or Slayer I guess. Major 7th is a pop music favorite, lots of hits there.
Click to expand...

yes, if its not modal stuff.. if its modal these terms seem to be quite opposite.. sharp 4th gives summer high.. and 7th becomes very mysterious, not pop at all...

angel of death, marching through the kingdom of the dead..!!!!!! slaaaaaaayer!!!! :)
 
bigfootangel said:
yes, if its not modal stuff.. if its modal these terms seem to be quite opposite.. sharp 4th gives summer high.. and 7th becomes very mysterious, not pop at all...

angel of death, marching through the kingdom of the dead..!!!!!! slaaaaaaayer!!!! :)
Click to expand...

Good point, yeah it makes a big difference if you think melodically or harmonically. Traditionally Eastern music emphasized melody and western used a lot of harmony but now rock and jazz players play a lot of scales and the eastern guys are doing a big mix. There's a video on this forum https://homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/music-video-production/need-some-comments-389519/ that has a lot of eastern images but some very western pop music being played, I thought they should have had a mix there too but .. . whatever eh?
 
exactly, brother. melodically or harmonically.. both worlds have a respect.. melodically is when harmony almost isnt present or leads basicly nowhere.. but its cool, meditative, requires lots of emotions and wild passion for expression..

so mostly all the eastern popular stuff is achieved by using phrygian mode with all sorts of alterations.. flamenko, arabic, egyptian etc..
phrygian rules..
im investigating further.. i wonder what are other tricks to sounding mysterious, exotic...?
im starting to investigate chinese, japanese etc music aswell.. chinese so far are just raw pentatonics... with miniscule variations..

what do you , guys, use for those mysterious, demonish, fearfull or even mysteriously happy sounds?

danke
 
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btw.. minor seconds added to any chord give great mystery.. cool..
 
life is a learning process, so best wishes for this new school year to everyone!

jesus bless

samm
 
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