Greetings from Iraq. I play music as a hobby (not professionally), but I know enough and I believe that you illustrated the characteristics of the Eastern vs Western music very clearly and very successfully. Keep up the good work.
@@dgates6165 Not at all. The "Major" and the "Minor" scales are part of the set of scales of the Middle East. I think the opposite is more likely. The Middle East scales might sound unpleasant for the western ears, especially the scales with quarter tones. I found one example that a wester band "adopted" the quarter-tone scales: "King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard"... A wonderful band from Australia. Check them on RU-vid!
@@ayadalhilo Interesting! I wouldn't say that type of music sounds unpleasant to me. It is just very different! It sounds totally foreign which, in my opinion, is very cool! The intervals you have in that music, to me, sounds very dissonant and I happen to very much enjoy dissonance in music.
@@dgates6165 Excellent! However, it is just like when you and your friends go in a trip, then you try new exotic food for the first time. Some of you will find it delicious, while others will not like it at all! The same with the "exotic" scales, some of people will find it out-of-tune, while others will find it amazing!
@@ayadalhilo I listen to a lot of metal music that purposely uses dissonant chords to add an "edgy" sound to the music. However, hearing it in middle eastern music as just normal part of the music is really cool! Are there any like.... rock bands from your part of the world? As in, using the same scales and music structure, but with a western song structure?!
@Auf RU-vid nicht an Politik interessiert Ah yes American football which has a much higher rate of concussions and injury overall compared to rugby. Rugby admittedly has higher spinal cord injury rates. Quite frankly it’s stupid to compare the two sports because they’re completely different. The padding in American football actually makes it more aggressive as well, and makes it require less regulation than compared to if there was no padding.
A highly skilled Musician giving a very knowledgable explanation of Western and Eastern music the difference in their intervals, the individual versus the group, etc.EXCELLENT
I just watched this video man and my mind is racing - SO GOOD! Thanks so much for making this! I'm a Bangladeshi-American who's super into western classical music and theory, and to be able to learn like this was so enlightening! I especially enjoyed the Balkan part - such a sweet, mellow medium. What fascinated me too, was how the Balkans/Spanish are sort of like that middle between the East and West too - both musically and culturally to an extent too. It's beautiful, everything's beautiful. Thank you for this!
Wow. This is the most fantastic presentation on the history, development and distribution of world music that I have ever seen. Come to think of it, it's the only one I've ever seen. I'm a lifelong musician only recently wading into music theory. This video really helps explain a lot of fundamental questions. Thank you for a truly unique and valuable educational experience.
This is a really great video! Thank you so much! I learned more about music theory in this one video than I have in many, many others. So many videos talk about music theory solely from a Western perspective, that western concepts are taken for granted by the people teaching them, and so they never talk about the background, and the wider picture about why it's done that way in the first place. This video really helps give a wider, and broader view of music, that also helps one understand western music theory as well. Thank you!
Even within India we have two Classical Music, The Hindustani Classical and Carnatic Classical Music . Thanks Aaron for Educating us , Appreciate ur Work .
Very simple yet accurate explanation ... and you are not rusty on oud as you think ;) You played a very clear and beautiful turkish-style oud improvisation. I was always telling my western friend is that westerners tend to simplify ideas for the sake of harmony, while the eastern culture is beyond simplification.
For me, it is a very interesting subject and your video put more into what I know about what music is. It started, when I wanted to understand why there are 12 notes in western music. And other questions came: there is a gipsy in the underground playing solo on violin improvising for hours, and you can explain how he changes the tonal centre etc. but he goes through from very eastern sounding music to gipsy and to Vivaldi. He doesn't need a backtrack. I started improvising solo on my guitar ( only one rule - play what you hear in your head) interesting. I also read about that scientists think we could be better with 19 step or (31 that's too much to handle) and to my understanindg this 12 step comes from hour major scale - with compormises in pich.
Absolutely excellent explanation for somebody who is trying to make sense of a new music system they've probably just started listening to. I'm really glad I stumbled upon this video of yours. I tend to pretty much like diverse kinds of music, but don't necessarily understand or connect with all of them. You video is surely gonna help me understand some new stuff better. Thank you so much.
This is fantastic! Thanks! I play slide in open tunings . Now I understand why drones and power chords work best for accompaniment when I am improvising microtonally all over the place!
I found the same difference in approach explained this way: western Music is more focused on structure (symphonies n stuff) whereas eastern Music is more of a loop. The paradox to me is that in the latter there is more space for improvisation. Btw thanks a lot for your insightful take on the subject!!!
Wonderful and very clear explanation with solid analogies comparing modal vs. harmonic music, combined with a talent for playing. Much also has to do with society and religion. The Christian and Muslim cultures tend very much towards a follow-the rule-books approach, with the main book being the Bible or the Koran. The Hindu perspective is totally different, where it is up to the individual to dig deep within themselves to find a lot of the answers. Therefore, Indian music tends to be more individualistic and the pure modal form of music suits it much better.
Gud understanding......, Just a while ago a western lady said that Indian singers can't do riffs nd runs like mariah carey nd beyonce......, I found it immature
25:56 It doesn't sound "off". There is an Indian song called "Saare Jahan Se Acha" which sounds like this. The National Anthem of Afghanistan also sounds like that. It's correct in a different context. 26:43 True dat, Balkan music also does a lot of that East/West mixture that many people find strange. Even Balkan beats/rhythm sounds "off" to people. Btw didn't watch your entire video. Just scrubbing through to hear examples.
Playing the minor third, in fact the minor pentatonic scale, over a major chord is completely fine. It's actually quite common in the blues. I know that the blues uses dominant 7th chords but they are still major.
This is fantastic info- you've given me hints of so many threads to explore by discussing music from so many different parts of the world. Thanks so much. Can I ask where you're based?
Hi ! Thank you very much for the video. Do you know about the 22 shrutis discovered by Dr. Oke ? He is an Hindustani classical musician (harmonium maestro) and he has conducted research on music for the past 20 years. He discoverd the 22 musical "notes" or "points" that exist in an octave starting from Shadja. As you know Sa and Pa are fixed. The other 10 have 2 variant each, an entry and an exit, and he explaines very well how our ET scale is "out of tune" when compared to the natural "in tune" and he has explained everything on his website with 50 small articles with all the mathematical explanations. I am studying it, it is very interesting. Explains how some cultures have sharper or flatter notes (frequencies actually) in their scale.
Namaste Shanti garu, Dr.Vidyadhar Oke made 22 Shruti Harmonium.But not Shruthies.22 shruties are already discovered by Ancient musicians.22 shruties are already using in our indian music especially in Carnatic music from the olden days.12 Shruthies are essential.Other 12 shruthis rarely use in Rare Raagas.
wow. these compromises.... after trying to use oud for metal-style playing, I decided to fully quartertone fret a stratocaster. it completely changed my style. now, i only play 2-string chords, and always bend one string or the other to make the intervals Just. ie: G+/B, B/D+. I tune all fourths and the quartertone frets are almost only used for cutting minor thirds in half. It's almost too hard to arpeggiate and play diminished scales. I need to slow down a bit when playing even diatonic scales. I end up staying within about a fourth (tetrachords). when i listen to umm kulthum daret el ayam... it opens up with a surf-rock toned guitar. just the existence of guitars and pianos constrain the rest of the band; preventing prominent quartertones. usually quartertones only show after they drop out completely or go to pentatonic scales behind bayati, etc.
Listen to Oum Koultoum's Inta Omri, there is an arab metal band who covered it. Transferring middle eastern music into rock guitar actually flourished in Israel, here are some songs to get an idea of the sound ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IzBoFYMoR2k.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1YW9Xn0SWIQ.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vHyQa2_YV8Y.html (solo at 2:30) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Rh9kVQfeNOA.html (from 0:26) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3-zUGyxo154.html
Your content is great thanks for sharing your knowledge! could you also write some the makams you use with time tags? I recognized some ussak, rast, (mahur?), segah, hicaz movements etc. also do you have some 'sources' for understanding balkan music (bands/styles per country, theory, folk songs, ...)
But when it comes to Indian Classical Music (Eastern Music) the scenario changes gradually. Three basic differences between Indian (Eastern) and Western Classical music: 1. There is absolutely no concept of harmony (in the musical sense) in Indian classical music. There are no chords...only notes and the 'spaces between' them (or microtones, known as sruti) with each note played one at a time to maintain clarity and purity. 2. Indian classical music is largely an oral tradition, facilitating continuity by being sung and played the same way by succeeding generations. But because it is also an improvised art, it means that each musician of succeeding generations can not only add a great deal of creativity but also set a distinct personal style. The raag/raga (melodic structure) itself may be carved in stone and confined to strict rules but because there is no written score, there is no culture of producing an accurate and faithful copy of that score. So, it's a strange mixture...purity combined with full freedom for improvisation and innovation. 3. Western music generally attempts to create a mood as it progresses, Indian music concentrates on exploring a mood from every possible standpoint, plummeting to the very depths of the emotions it creates, but always remaining at the periphery rather than jumping into the centre. Hence, the chosen raag/raga is unfolded very enticingly, note by note and only gradually building up in rhythmic intensity to a fast tempo. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yfMHiTIm-zc.html
I like to have the dissonance of mixing "Western" and "Eastern" music by adding some "Western" / jazz chord progressions onto Middle Eastern maqams incl some 3/4 note interval maqams. Not everyone likes it though. In fact, I also meet similar opposition from changing the standard "trad" guitar (usually DADGAd tuning) to jazz/rock chord progressions sometimes [eg changing an Am - G- Am- G- prgoression to an Am- G- F- E- progression in Aeolian mode jigs and reels
I am struggling to decide if I should Salute you for this mind-blowing video alone, or simply for your skills of playing all these instruments effortlessly - let alone the fusion itself!!
To clarify the difference between; it is that there is no theory (till now at least) able to harmonize quarter tones. So when you say that eastern music is monophonic it is not totally correct because eastern has also modes like major, minor, harmonic and phrygian, additionally to the ukrainian dorian (dorian 4). Because the western could not with its theory harmonize the modes with quarter tones like rast, beyati, saba, sika... they said it is unharmonizable so monophonic. At the same time, I heard some arab compositions with quarter tones and include harmony composition with a very consonant and beautiful tonality to hear.
nice what you play on uod was the maqam alajam originally from the Parisian gulf these maqam also the hijaz maqam dos not need the quarter ton and going from maqam to another maqam we call it tahwel there is so many way for changing from maqam to maqam i will gladly help you if you need more info
I agree about most of what you said however, I do not agree that monophonic vs Polyphonic is somehow Arpeggios vs Chords Arpeggios suggest they come from harmony. In arabic music for instance most of the time we follow maqams tetrachords We do not really use the whole scale in one musical phrase (or rarely) so seldom you hear an arpeggios in a real traditional arabic music. We don t also really jump from tonic to fifth to seventh of the scale..This is probably the difference between a maqam and scale and why we need to use a distinct term.
The thing with both western and eastern music scales is, they are not as solid as they are presented in theory books. For example minor scale is actually different in ascending form (with M6 and M7 intervals) and descending form (with m6 and m7 intervals), similar to an approximation of the in between (quarter) tones you are playing middle eastern music on the guitar. The first point where far eastern and middle eastern music began to differentiate is when folks began adding ornamentation, passing notes, and embellishment tones on top of the pentatonic scales. The intervals of these new added tones were personal and local, but for building standard fretted instruments, they were formalized and standardized differently in different regions. The imperial states of Turkestan, India, Persia, Egypt, Islamic, Roman, Byzantine and later Catholic Roman Empires had different takes and different theories for what makes a good scale and good scale intervals. And latest, western church restricted the use of all scales except the seven church modes used in western music today. Tempered tuning standardization came much later after the piano was invented. My idea is that music is just ornamentation on pentatonic scales, western or eastern doesn't matter. One can derive and also use all scales of west and east using this principle. And the quarter tones you may use or not does not change the effect of this kind of music because they are either passing notes or embellishments on the solid pentatonic scale tones, that historically all music on this world derived from. And yet anther fact is, players of non-fretted instruments and vocalists in both west and east play or sing different notes than what theory says they play. For example a violin player will play different micro tones for a sharp F or flat G, which in theory is the same tone (on the piano at least). Also, a violinist will play sharper if the note is the M7 (leading tone) in a major scale. Eastern musicians also play different comma tones (microtones), that can be analyzed on different musicians playing or singers singing the same scale melody. So the solid foundation for me is the pentatonic scales, and building other scales (actually combined scales) on top of the pentatonic scales, but the stable tones (where notes tend to rest more frequently) will be the pentatonic scale tones. And I would build chords mostly from those stable tones/intervals from the pentatonic scale, I would call any other note in a chord as extension notes (melodic intervals) as the 6th, 7th, 9th is called in todays western music theory, but in a more general meaning (any non-pentatonic scale tone), not the 6th, 7th and 9th exactly. And finally I will add that western music has a lot of third leaps in melodies whereas middle eastern music has mostly 2nd, 4th and 5th interval leaps in melodies. And there is limited chord structures built with these 2nd, 4th, and 5th intervals in traditional instruments like baglama/saz and kemence. And there is actually a formalized harmonic theory developed by Kemal Ilerici, that utilized stacked 4ths (which result in these 2nd, 4th and 5th intervals), that is used a lot by Turkish classical music composers whose influence is Turkish folk or traditional middle eastern music (for example Muammer Sun used this theory for most of his works).
As a guy who lives in the United States, I can say that wearing a house or head covering in a building is generally reguarded as disrespectful. It's just this guy, not half the world genius.
Nice informative video. I love modal music. But, though I hate to be picky, "hemispheres" have nothing to do with it. Europe is not in the "western hemisphere". Native American music, for instance, is. It is all about cultures. And, if geography must be brought into it at all, north vs south makes more sense.
modal music = horizontal chords progressing to destination intervals. lol. seriously though. think about it. also please god use nonfunctional progressions and chords, not scales. and dont use bog standard triads. sus4 is just as consonant as major.
12:52 That’s a Kurdish music instrument called Tanbor! Well both Kurds and Turks use it! Here is the proof: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pgjtsd_mFpQ.html
except that middle eastern music theory what you call MAKAM is something so wide and different that you should have made a whole video about it instead ... because there are almost 10 12 different middle eastern scales that has something called 1/4 of a pitch .. which is non existant in the spectrum you spoke of. other than that well made video
As somebody whose roots are in the middle east and grew up in Germany, I am very very thankful for this video and for your accuracy! I wish more people would recognize the beauty in the different music styles over the world and yet how music connects us as an universal language. Well done ❤️
Great video, you explained really well about this subject. Personally, I tend to listen arabic music more, and sometimes I listen western classical and pop music too, and I can feel there's a lot of difference yet I cannot explain it except for the usage of microtonal notes.
Very interesting video, thank you very much for the time you've put into transmitting this. It has helped me very much in seeing foundational distinctions. In my humble opinion, I think where the two specifically meet is within the realm of harmonizing a melody. That's where you start to get into a whole new realm of creative possibilities and music theory can be visualized as an infinite expanse never ending.. but it feels very difficult to grasp practically and somewhat out of reach. So baby steps. But I also I think that real practice and dedication can be a ferry to bring one to that level of capability and understanding to where it's not overly intellectual killing the 'spirit' of the music so to speak. The first step is always to enjoy it, have fun, and connect, if you ask me that is.. Anyways, I enjoyed this much.Thank you again!
Thank you for this video. I've been trying to understand the differences between western and eastern music and this is a wonderful explanation that gives respect to both systems.
This was amayzing I was shearching for where are there 12 notes in music for hours and coulden't find a clear discripive video until I came to you. You should be a teacher, great value my man. Thank you