Sir Bunting
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Orlando, FL

I made two reference booklets on the scales of Greek and Ethiopian folk music.

Volume 1: There are 12 scales here: Hijaz, Hijazkiar, Houzam, Periaiotikos, Rast, Sengiah, Tsinganikos, Kiourdi, Niaventi, Ousak, Sabach, and Souzinak. Each page features a piano image, a notation image, category info, and a chart listing all triads and seventh chords.

Volume 2: There are 16 scales here: Tizita Major, Tizita Minor, Batti Major, Batti Major #4, Batti Major #5, Batti Minor, Batti Minor #4, Batti Minor #4#7, Ambassel Major, Ambassel Minor, Anchihoye, Yematebela Wofe, Shegaye, Ararai, Ezel / Geez, and Kaffa. The first 13 are pentatonic, and have mode charts instead of chord charts. The final 3 are heptatonic and contain chord charts. If the scale has a Western equivalent, I added it under the name. Thank you for your patience!

I may create more volumes in the future - let me know what you think. Happy composing.

Download volume 1 "Greece" here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l1nq42eyo47y … e.pdf?dl=0

Download volume 2 "Ethiopia" here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxa366kurx5zo … a.pdf?dl=0

Here is a screenshot of volume 1. It is the first scale, Hijaz.

Here is a screenshot of volume 2. It is the table of contents, showing the 16 scales.

Last edited by Sir Bunting (March 1, 2016 4:34 pm)

Devieus
Offline
NL

I'll absorb it into the generator. Thanks.

laguna
Offline
Madrid, Spain

Thanks you for your nice work. I'll give it a go with some synth sounds smile

Tomavatars
Offline
France

Great thanks a lot!

Sir Bunting
Offline
Orlando, FL

Thanks, I'm glad you all like it. Let me know if you use one of these scales - I'd love to hear it.

I'm currently planning to release another volume March 1.

Devieus
Offline
NL
Brackleforth wrote:

Thanks, I'm glad you all like it. Let me know if you use one of these scales - I'd love to hear it.

I'm currently planning to release another volume March 1.

I'm thinking I'll be using it all of February.

orangedrink
Offline
Wisconsin, USA

This is really neat!  I'm new to music theory; just started studying it, so most of this is beyond me.

Hopefully by the end of 2016, I will have understood and incorporated this into my work!

Devieus
Offline
NL
orangedrink wrote:

This is really neat!  I'm new to music theory; just started studying it, so most of this is beyond me.

Hopefully by the end of 2016, I will have understood and incorporated this into my work!

Well, all but the chord tables are pretty self-explanatory, a scale is either major or minor, which in practice means that if you're in C, a minor scale has the third note (E) flattened.

Scale type is always heptatonic, which means there's always 7 notes in an octave used.

The transposition is a list of numbers that say how many keys the next note is away, 1 is the next key, from black to white (e.g. C# to D), white to black (e.g. C to Db, unless there's no black e.g. E to F); 2 is two keys over (e.g. C to D) and 3 is the third key over (e.g. C to D#).

As for the chords, it's probably easier to focus on the triads first. It's in roman numerals that count the note from the tonic; capital letters indicate a major chord, small letters indicate a minor. Say you're in C, I would be C major, vii would be B minor (7th note on the C scale is B).

A little O next to it means diminutive chord, it's always after a minor chord, it basically means the third note of triad is also flattened (e.g. Cm would be [C,Eb,G], Cdim would be [C,Eb,Gb]). A little + next to it means an augmented chord and is always next to a major chord, it basically means the third note of the triad is sharpened (e.g. C would be [C,E,G], Caug would be [C,E,G#]).

Now reading the chord table, it indicates the chord you're playing when you're using this scale (in C), which is the note, two notes after that, and two notes after that, which means in all the major scales, the first chord is most always major, but since these are rather unusual scales, there's going to be exceptions, like Ib5, or 026, which is basically just giving up on notation.

CrazyBob
Offline
Polish Village, Chicago, IL
Brackleforth wrote:

Thanks, I'm glad you all like it. Let me know if you use one of these scales - I'd love to hear it.

I'm currently planning to release another volume March 1.

I've used this for both my pieces so far, and named them after the scale. First week Niaventi, this week Sengiah.

Looking forward to the next volume!

zyuuziro
Offline
Yokohama,japan

It is a great job!!
I want to use these to release of February ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

Phil Harmonic
Online
The future
Brackleforth wrote:

I made a reference booklet on the scales of Greek folk music. There are 12 scales here: Hijaz, Hijazkiar, Houzam, Periaiotikos, Rast, Sengiah, Tsinganikos, Kiourdi, Niaventi, Ousak, Sabach, and Souzinak. Each page features a piano image, a notation image, category info, and a chart listing all triads and seventh chords.

I may create more volumes in the future - let me know what you think. Happy composing.

Download here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l1nq42eyo47y … e.pdf?dl=0

Here is a screenshot of the first scale, Hijaz.

cool shit

Sir Bunting
Offline
Orlando, FL

Volume 2 is completed! I have updated the original post.

CrazyBob
Offline
Polish Village, Chicago, IL

I've been feeling so melodically uninspired! Hooray for new scales to shake my brain loose...

Dkstr
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Helsinki, Finland

Hey thanks for these, super nice. More coming sooner or later? wink

zyuuziro
Offline
Yokohama,japan

!!??
Nice work. thanks!

Sir Bunting
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Orlando, FL

Thanks everyone! I hope the booklets are useful/interesting.

Dkstr wrote:

More coming sooner or later? wink

I'm currently doing resume/portfolio stuff and looking for a job. Things are tentative now. I'll post again when I know for sure when I'll have time to make a third volume.