The Fanciest Major Scale 

love this channel bro

It's so weird seeing a Westerner analyse this scale and point out the difficulties they face in writing with scales like this. Having grown up with this kind of music, I find it hard to write something in a Western classical scale, as I always revert back to more Arabic sounding melodies and scales, without even noticing it! :)

He’s done it, he has ascended to the next level of consciousness *sponsored by skillshare*

I'm still subscribed. I'm still watching. I still don't know what's going on.

Harmony isn't the point of the double harmonic scale but what about double harmony

5th mode of Hungarian Minor, Double Harmonic Major C Db E F G Ab B C 1st Mode: Hungarian Minor Scale 2nd Mode: Oriental Scale 3rd Mode: Major Augmented ♯9 Scale 4th Mode: Locrian bb3 bb7 Scale 5th Mode: Byzantine Scale (= Double Harmonic Major) 6th Mode: Lydian ♯2 ♯6 Scale 7th Mode: Ultra Phrygian

So as an oudist I was immediately intrigued by the "Arabic" description of this scale. I went into maqam world and realized that double harmonic is equivalent to the maqam hijaz kar, which is itself just a normal hijaz scale (which Wikipedia calls Phrygian dominant) with the 7th raised by a quartertone. I'm not quite sure but I think I remember that one of the readings I did for my original class on Arabic music called hijaz the standard maqam for background music to Western movies set in the Middle East. I don't quite understand the theory well enough yet, but it is also interesting that the maqamat has a maqam directly equivalent to the "standard" Western major scale: maqam ajam (different tuning systems notwithstanding).

I was wondering if you could discuss Indian or Eastern scales at some point. The double harmonic is known in the South Indian style (Carnatic) as Mayamalavagowla (spelling varies). There are 71 other scales that are considered the basis of all Carnatic ragams, all 72 known collectively as melakartas. 40 are called vivadis, which are relatively rare in concert because of large skips around the tonic, subdominant, or dominant that make them sound more bizarre. There are equivalents to the major, minor, the harmonic minor, all other modes off of the major (the locrian analog is neither a melakarta nor a very common ragam, but it exists as hanumashree). It's mathematically interesting to note how they develop the 72, and you might get a kick out of talking about microtones and gamakams (though I have to insist you do your research and maybe speak to a respected Indian classical professional. I know you would, but I've been hurt before)

My friend aboslutly hates the double harmonic scale and I've been spamming this video to him. Awesome stuff and keep up the great work!

I thought I basically understood modes until I read these comments

Yay, another scale analysis! I love writing in weird scales, so these are always nice to see.

Phrygian dominant is so metal

So I'm going to expand on the comments thread made by B.J. Ryan as I’m also an Oud player who’s been hitting the books a lot recently. I’m posting this on it’s own though, because I’m hoping everyone can see this essay. I’m going to talk about Near/Middle-Eastern/Asian? musical practice/history (it’s long, fair warning): While the intonation varies substantially depending on where you practice this sequence, whether it be the Byzantine Church, Syria, Egypt, Arabian Gulf, the structure is overall the same for the Double Harmonic. In Arabic/Turkish, it's called Hijaz Kar. In the Byzantine tradition the overall structures are called the Chromatic modes, Iranian tradition refers to it as Chahargah. I mean, I could go on, but there's about as many names for it as the are drops in the ocean. Regardless of what you call it, general gist is that it's a tetrachordal structure that starts on the root, ends on the perfect 4th, then repeats at the perfect 5th. The Hijazi/Chromatic tetrachord's note intervals basically go like this: small, big, small.The ranges can be anywhere, from ~134, ~232, ~134 cents, to ~67, ~366, ~67 cents, but that overall structure is preserved (the former is the 'Soft' Chromatic, the latter is 'Hard' in Byzantine lingo). Also sometimes the small tones either side are assymetric. In more standard Arab practice it’s pretty much ~100, ~300, ~100 because of exposure to Western tonality in the 19th-20th centuries and beyond. 12tone (hi!) is absolutely right when he says Harmony isn’t the point of that modal sequence (but it’s good he doesn’t let it stop him from playing with it), just owing to the way it's constructed and treated. Oh oh, cool aside: the Byzantine Church’s current practice is based on precedents set by Medieval Islamic music theory that got transferred through the Ottoman court. Look up Chrysanthos of Madytos. Now to get to B.J.R’s other point about a lot of sequences being similar in both traditions. Absolutely right! It’s because both have Pythagorean roots, it’s just that both went in wildly different directions. One wanted to make as many consonant simultaneous note combinations as possible, and the other wanted to explore all the colours of intervallic spaces in melodic sequences (again, harmony is not the point, but not *impossible*. That’s another subject though). In a very, very broad nutshell anyways. Hell, from what I can glean from the music theory of Ibn Sina we used to have 12 tone music too. The fact that Ajam was mentioned (what some might call Ionian/Major) makes me super happy. It’s development is really important to talk about, or more specifically how it relates to Rast. The Rast mode is regarded as the principal mode of, like, 75% of Middle-Eastern music, particularly the Arabs and Turks, much like Ionian. See, Rast is expressed typically in quarter-tonal terms, with a neutral third and seventh compared to Ionian’s Major third and seventh.Their roles as the modal big daddies are so similar that you can even derive other principal modes from rotating it’s tetrachord. Two examples: Bayati starts on it’s second note, Segah on it’s neutral third note. Still, similar roles notwithstanding they still sound pretty different, no? That’s not strictly true. This is the current practice now (more on that in a second), but Medieval theory had different ideas in mind before the tradition evolved into what it is today. To you Just Intonation fanatics, see if these cent values - taken from ratios of the medieval music titan Safi Uddin al Urmawi - look familiar: 0, 204, 384, 498, 702, 882, 996, 1200 That’s his intonation of Rast. Barring being off by *two cents*, the lower notes are a Just Diatonic, only weirdly enough it's tetrachord is stacked again on the Perfect 4th to look like Mixolydian. After a while common practice altered that sequence so that it looks more like your bog-standard major scale. So how come Rast and Ajam/Ionian/(Mixolydian?) are treated different these days? They aren’t, depending on who’s playing it. A lot of Turkish players still play their Rast thirds that high, to the point where someone would have to be veeeeeeeeeery skilled to highlight the difference between this kind of Rast and what you and I would call Ajam/Major. From what I’ve read and heard myself, the Iranians play their equivalent, Rast Penj Gah, with the thirds either that high or even a bit higher (close to the ratio of 81/64, but the choice is also a little tied to the timbre of the particular instrument). Having said that, nowadays, it’s much more common for the Rast third to be flatter than any third that someone might typically call ‘Major’. Part of it is an intentional choice in intonation, particularly by the Arabs, to help separate it from the more western Major Scale (down here in the Gulf it almost sounds like Dorian). There’s other stuff that plays into it regarding intervallic spaces and history and mismatch of theory and practice, but this is already really long. One last thing though just to add to my last point: ‘Ajam’, what arabs call the Major scale these days, is a classical Arabic term for a ‘foreigner’ or ‘non-Arab’. Actually it’s a mite… pejorative, but I’m not sure most people know that these days. Okay I lied, one other last thing: From what I can glean, Malian Kora players like Toumani Diabate sometimes intonate their diatonic thirds to be lower than 386 cents, somewhere in the 360 cents range from what I can tell (like the Syrians do). This comment has been edited to be more accurate. I've learned a bit in two months.

Beautiful work as always, Cory! The tritone sub right in the scale is something I would never expect.

Is there a course on Skillshare dedicated to gummi bear tossing?

Woohoo, I love this scale! So happy you covered this, it's one of my favourites :)

What I always find interesting is how this mode is considered synonymous with Arab music by most westerners. It's definitely found in some Arabic music, but it actually seems far more prevalent in Byzantine chant, Balkan folk music, and Indian music than it is in Arabic music

I love this video so much. I've been working on a song lately and this scale really expresses what I'm hearing in my head.

Really cool video! Loved the part about looking at the built in chords, especially the tritone sub. Cool stuff, great video

I've been using skillshare since February, I took comprehensive music theory class that is divided in 12 courses of about 5-8 hours each and I definitely recommend it! Actually, thanks to those courses I understood this video better heh :P

As always, your video was nearly incomprehensible to me, yet still super engaging. Keep up the great work!

The scale also contains a jazzy V7b5b9

I love this scale and was so glad to see you did a video about it. But you left out some of my favorite facts. It contains two tritones (2-5 and 4-7) and because the whole scale is symmetrical, you can build a French+6 chord (which is also symmetrical) from the 2nd or 5th scale degrees... Also I like to think of this scale as having dominant function in a minor key. The root note of this scale is actually the dominant and the fourth scale degree is the tonic, but the two notes straddling the root note pull everything towards that I chord and it feels very “at home” there.

I really really really really love you videos. Great stuff :)

The drawings are adorable! Love it.

I love your channel it have been realy helpful fot my thesis

While I have very little understanding of the actual terms or technical stuff in this video, this scale is the scale I learned first, and I think that I love the dissonance that a lot of it has. There's a lot of drama and tension that can be brought about very easily with it's sound, and that's something I enjoy a lot.

The bit about the tritone subs just blew my mind. One of my favorite 12tone videos so far.

How did you not mention miserlou??! Lol it actually does the b2 dominant 7 trick with the trumpet note. Great video and channel!!

An interesting mode of this scale i call double harmonic minor is this scale but on the 4th

"Boom, nailed that transition". - You did nail that transition, you really did. ❤

Wow, finally some covering of *my favourite* scale to improvise on!

This scale is called "Hicazkar" maqam in Turkish Art Music. It also called "Kara Sevda" ayak in Turkish Folk Music.

Yay! I was hoping you would do a video on this. Although the traditional chords may be weird, they do seem interesting and seem like they would be fun to write in. I mean, you don't see a dimsus chord everywhere.

Now I get why a jazz bassist was suggesting this scale

I wrote a piece revolving around a melody in double-harmonic major and think it’s awesome seeing you cover the scale.

the scale (dhM) is known by MANY names, in many traditions: namely, all of the following: Byzantine scale {within its tradition, Byzantine “plagal of the second mode/tone 6” (πλάγιως του β’ / πλάγιως δεύτερος), aka Byzantine “hard chromatic”}, AND ALSO AS western “double harmonic major”, AND “Gypsy major”, AND ALSO AS Indian (Carnatic tradition): “Mayamalavagowla” / “Bhairav Taga”, AND Arabian: “Hijaz Kar” / “Shad Araban”, AND Persian “Chahargah”, AND Turkish: “Zirgüleli Hicaz”. So the scale is in substantial repertoire over a vast geographic area, from southern India, at one extremity, to the Balkans, at another. …and it would be good to hear from musicians from Armenia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, and other regions having this scale in prominent use.

This is the same as the basic Indian raga Mayamalavagowla, which is interesting to me, considering I sing Carnatic music.

Now you've given me another scale I would like to do something devious to using quarter tones.

Hooray for weird scales! Keep em coming, way cooler that song analysis. ;)

I love your videos on these really different scales. Would love to see a video on the hungarian major scale. Its shape is very interesting. The 7th degree is augmented sus 4 and its "locrian" mode is the traditional locrian with a flat 4, double flat sixth and double flat 7

I love the phrygian dominant scale. one of my all time favorites to improvise on.

Hey, cool stuff. Can you analyze Supper’s Ready by Genesis

That was the best live-read I've heard. Well played, mate

I really want you to start a 16-tone or 19-tone channel! At least 13-tone-tritave...

I like the drawing of the element Technetium to illustrate "rare" at the 2:00 mark. 😁

Have you thought about making a video on the augmented scale?

Great video!

Messing around with a E Double Harmonic Minor the other day, I noticed the same thing regarding melody over normal chords. Using the double harmonic chords didn't sound very good over the melody, but using it with normal E Minor chords sounded really nice. I still got a lot to learn because I've only been playing for 6 months but these videos help a lot :)

Very cool video. Another great scale with some interesting possibilities is Lydian #2 b6. Has similar interval content, but the half steps surround the V instead of the I. Also contains mi(maj7) chords separated by major 3rds to give that "eerie space" feel. Thanks for the vids!

Oh man, that tritone sub resolving made me feel super good

What would you call the A# - C - G - E chord near the end of Chopin's Em prelude? As a Bb it would be easy, C7/Bb, which matches the C7 a few measures earlier.

Try Double Harmonic Major with a aug4...thats more trippy....In Indian classical we call it Raga Puriya Dhanashree

I'd love it if you made a video about the Dominant Pentatonic scale (1 2 3 5 7♭)! Unless you already have, then could you send a link? If you made one, I can't find it.

My favorite way to think of this scale in the context of Western harmony is to view it as the second half of two harmonic minor scales in two keys a perfect fifth apart. If you know what you are doing, you can switch back and forth between these keys with a V7/V chord and float between the two keys using just the notes of the Double Harmonic Major scale. You get a bit of the character of the scale's melody and a bit of the harmony of harmonic minor.

I love this way of explaining theory

Makes me wonder if my songs I used to write based around switching between a single chord's major and minor could fit in to this scale as those versions of the third-note chord. Curious to introduce what would be the key-note chord into something like that now. Additionally, "avoid notes" is such a great term for those! Now I know what to call those. :)

It's the weirdest thing. Ever since I picked up a guitar 16 years ago. I find myself accidentally finding this scale and falling in love with it again. I only learned the specifics of what it was a couple years ago. It just has such an interesting sound. To my American ears it feels sad, but pleading and somehow still proud at the same time. Like there's still some hope in there, but it feels overwhelmed with doubt for everything but itself, which it's sure of. I know that's a lot of subtext to write into it, but that's always the vibe I keep coming to when I try to really hear the scale used in all sorts of contexts.

Hellu, could you tackle Grieg's In The Hall Of The Mountain King? Ive always been fascinated (well, ever since I learned it) with the fact that Grieg wrote it as a satirical pisstake on over the top national romantic pieces of his contemporaries at the time, making it *so* over the top national romantic that surely, in his mind, anyone could see it was a parody. But then to his annoyance it gets unironically hailed as a national romantic masterpiece and is to this day one of the more popular and instantly recognisable of such compositions. Sorry for my bad English, hopefully my meaning comes across.

The double harmonic scale is a scale Olivier Messiaen was a big fan of. He dubbed it his "3rd modus" and if I'm not remembering it wrong, the entirety of the 7th movement of his Quartet Till the End of Time is based solely in it, even the harmonies! And I think you'd be surprised how beautiful it sounds despite the weird signature of this scale: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UeSVu1zbF94.htmlm32s

Interesting, I have never heard the name “double harmonic minor” for that scale, I’ve always heard it called Hungarian Minor.

Calling them “avoid notes” just makes me want to play them more.

No way, I discovered this scale by accident. It sounds so good!

NoooOOOO THIS SCALE HAS NOTES IN IT

Scheduled to record a song this Friday where the guitar solo begins with a run up the C double harmonic minor scale.

at 00:30 a strange chord was mentioned viidim sus2. bII7 is enarmonicaly the same as the "strange chord"

My favorite scale. Thanks keep up the great work

I'd like to point out that a minor third doesn't necessarily need a note in between. The reason it's an augmented 2nd is because the note names are a second apart, but the interval is one semitone bigger than a major 2nd.

when I first saw this video 2 years ago, I didn't understand any of this. After much studying and practice, Im coming back to this video 2 years later and understand it perfectly. When you're playing it irl, it legitimately does feel and sound like if Phrygian were Major, it's cool.

Check out Raga Todi or Ragam Shubhapantuvarali. It's a phrygian scale with two augmented seconds. It's basically a Hungarian Minor flat 2. C Db Eb F# G Ab B C

Found this scale while playing around with Misirlou. What's interesting is that on depending on the rendition of that song, it follows either the double harmonic scale, or one that has the lowered second, but not the raised seventh. Care to do an analysis?

i noticed many hymens and other popular songs are written in cmajor, is there a particular reason as to why that is?

Thanks for *not* doing a 2 minute intro about skillshare😀

Was check ing out Dick Dale's Misirlou and found out about this one. What a timing

I found this scale while messing around on guitar and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since

What’s the scale called if you start and end on the G?

You did in fact "nailed that transition".

Why skip the rest of the modes? Lydian #6 #2 is a really good one!

can you tell me about the melodic minor?

I love this scale, it makes melodies sound a lot 'spicier'

My favorite scale is “Yona Nuki Minor”, It is written as: b3,5,b6,Root,2,b3,5,b6,Root. It sounds really cool.

I figued out the Double Harmonic Major by noodling around with notes that sounded Arabic. I really like it! The Persian Scale is also pretty cool, too.

Please make "Understanding Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

As a violin player whose strings are tuned in fifths, I figured this scale out when I was a kid (the lower and upper halves are the same fingerings across two strings if you start from an open string). I only found out it was called the Double Harmonic scale years later, and man was that a satisfying discovery :) Nowadays I probably bring this epic boi up in conversation more than any other scale (except maybe Lydian, because damn what a beautiful mode...)

How about this: building a chord on the VII degree (C# Eb G) we have a diminished 3rd (C# to Eb) and a major 3rd (Eb to G), with a diminished 5th between C# to G. Now that's some weird triad (is that even a triad?)

0:34, why is it a C# dim sus2? There's no 2. It's implied, but not there. It's still 1-3-5....just with #1 and b3, which is a diminished 3rd, not any kind of 2nd...........right?

I remember learning this scale when I played Greek music, they call it Hijazskiar treelight.com/music/greek-music/greek-scales/ It's one note different from the ultra-common Hijaz scale which has a lowered seventh. I remember Miserlou uses this scale but when we soloed on it, the band preferred to solo on Hijaz mode. I think I hear it on Nardis at one point too.

You will hear this scale alot (most likely in the form of Hungarian minor) in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.7 and 17. Not saying these are the only ones (all of the rhapsodies uses this scale) but will hear it best in the suggestions I listed. But I really love this scale alot.

oooooo, I love the sounds of the weirder sorts of chords. diminished sus2 here I come! XD Funnily enough I've noticed Nine Inch Nails of all bands uses this scale quite a lot especially for solos.

Is Enrique Englesias’s “I Like It” in Mixolydian? I think it is

NAILED THAT TRANSITION

Funny - I was just messing around with a minor major 7 chord and now I have a scale to try over it!

Ah, you feed my inner Music Geek! Thank you!

If it's not explicitly featured in Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, this scale fits really well with it; only change I'd make would be to include a minor 7th (down a half step from Byzantine). By my reckoning, it opens with D major, then G minor, G major, Gsus4, and back to D major. Everything except the G major fits really well.

Since you’ve made this video, I think it would be appropriate if you analyze Rainbow’s Gates of Babylon.. it’s pretty much Double Harmonic scale at work 👌🏼

Misirlou!

Is it me or the tritone substitution sounds the same as a Neapolitan 6?

Stumbled upon this scale on accident one day when trying really hard to have 1, 4, and 5 while still having two augmented seconds in a scale. Took me a moment to discover that of course it has already been pretty common. Still, I love having fun with all its potential choices.

Says "collect" and draws a Pokeball. Good one, sir! Haha! :D

Holy.. the way you hold that thing🙈