Hi, i want to make Something different.

Iam looking for Scales that i can use for Spanish Melodys, Middle Eastern Melodys and Balkan Melodys.

I dont Know much about Music Theory but i Hope Someone can Help with some Scales.
I think Microtuning is really Important to get thouse Sounds right ?

Here a some examples for each Region :

Spanish Beat :

Middle Eastern Beat:

Balkan Style Beat :

Just for you to Know what i mean !

Thank you, and have a great Day ✌️

 

Hi.
None of what you played uses any scales other than western, let alone micro-tuning.
I listened to each one.
These are all just in standard minor keys.

 

You mean only Microtuning with some minor Scales is Important for that Type of Music ?

 

No, not at alI!
I meant that these tracks only use western melodic minor or whatever, and involve no micro-tuning whatsoever!
Obviously the second track plays a major 3rd leading note on the 5 chord, which is what makes it great!, but it's still just in a western minor key.
These are western songs with elements of other traditional instruments and styles.

 

no 1/4 tones necessary...

Harmonic minors

 

Yeah, nice.
Just not used in the first track! Unless it was at the end and I missed it.

 

The "Spanish" track has nothing Spanish about it, (besides of using a Classical guitar)
but it's more resemblant of Latin American music..

In terms of Harmony it's playing the Tonic chord and the Fifth > F#m - C#7
and the tonality is simply F# Minor..

That's like the most basic stuff possible..
In fact it's so fundamental you can just borrow the chords and go from there, if that's what you're after..


If you pretend being a musician, what you need to do first simply > Learn Theory and Harmony,
at least at a Fundamental level..

It doesn't make much sense to say, I want to do a track like these,
if you're cannot even understand music at the most fundamental level..

The more you resist it, the more evident will be that you need to.
And well, if you really love music and consider yourself a musician, is the least you can freaking do..


-That being said, I agree with JMOUTTON.
In broad terms to give music a Spanish Gipsy/Flamenco sound, an Arab/Eastern sound,
or even a Balkan type sound, best thing you could do to begin with is learn the Harmonic minor scale and its Modes..

For the Spanish/Flamenco and Arab thing, you've got Phrygian Dominant.
For the Balkan stuff, Romanian Scale aka Dorian #4

While Harmonic minor can also sound Eastern and impressionistic in general terms,
without belonging to a particular style/region/culture..

No micro-tonality involved.
(unless you want to be more period/culturally correct with some Arabic, Hindu or Indonesian music,
but it's unnecessary for basic chillout music like this)


-The "Arabic" beat is also doing the same chords im - vm,
but in B minor tonality instead

In Harmonic terms the Melody is playing Minor scale (Eolian) most of the time,
and only using Harmonic minor in a couple of crucial moments to make it be more Eastern..


-There's Nothing Balkanic about the supposedly "balkanic" example
Just a basic minor tonality, not even Harmonic minor.. and the chords are playing: im - bVI - bVII - vm bVII ad infinitum..

Besides of Harmony, one of the most defining elements of Balkan music is Rhythm,
they are experts in using odd-meter time signatures like 7/8 or 11/8, to great effect.

Nothing of that is here, so the track is not Balkan at all..


Big part of what makes this three examples work is the Production,
which instruments/timbres are used and in which way, to convey the ideas in a certain way or another..

But that comes more from personal Taste/Vision and Experience, more than anything theoretical


PS: And just for being Nitpicky, let me correct that "teacher":
The seventh note in the minor scale, is a Flat seventh, not a minor seventh.

Only Chords or scales can be "minor",
but notes can be flat, sharp or natural..

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2022

At last. Thank you.

Wasn't it more important to tell op that the music he likes is actually simpler than he thinks??
Even talking exotic scales in the context of these songs is irrelevant imo. Overkill and not really what op asks for.
In context of these particular tracks.
Thank you for echoing everything I already said in my first comment of two sentences!

 

I hope this will help

 

@F.L.O.W.

Just trying to send the guy somewhere for a start.

Didn't even listen to the posted tracks for more than 5-6 seconds each.

We can yell at him all day to learn about tonality / scales, degrees and progressions but until he understands that himself it's just not going to do anything.

 

This one is always fun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_minor_scale

 

Not only nitpicky but wrong. The seventh note in a scale can be a flat seven (not seventh) but in a D dorian scale, for example, this note (C natural) would not be referred to as flat. Intervals, however, can be perfect, major or minor and use ordinal numbers. The different characteristics of scales are attributable to the intervals between the different notes and the fundamental (or between each other). So it is perfectly correct to refer to a minor seventh in a minor scale, which denotes its interval from the fundamental and therefore its harmonic characteristics. Maybe you should take your own advice and study up a bit.

 

(Also being Nitpicky here, sorry if I'm being annoying, perhaps peeps will appreciate the bibliography involved)

Yeah, intervals can be perfect, minor, major, augmented, diminished and so on. Perhaps you're saying that based on a specific method in mind but that isn't widely accepted and used as you might think. Check, for example:

Kostka/Payne - Tonal Harmony
Walter Piston - Harmony
Jean-Philippe Rameau - Treatise on Harmony (the treatise that pretty much created the modern idea of harmony theory)
Diether de la Motte - The Study of Harmony

All of these classic treatises on tonal harmony use the major, minor, etc terminology applied to intervals. So it's more than correct.

--------/ / --------

Also, just for the OP information, THIS is spanish music, more specifically southern spanish music, what folks know as FLAMENCO (I'm posting just what is considered to be "traditional" to some extent, not even going to more modern Flamenco here, AKA flamenco after Paco):

It isn't in any way limited to phrygian dominant, it's a gigantic MASSIVE culture that gets often downplayed, digested and simplified for convenience by the masses.

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2022