Exotic Guitar Scales

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Exotic guitar scales are great to add some new flavor to your music. In this lesson, you
will learn 11 scales from different parts of the world. You will also learn how to practice
these scales and get an introduction to Indian music for guitar (ragas). Each scale is in
the key of A and comes with scale formulas and charts.

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Exotic Guitar Scales List

1. The Arabian Scale
2. The Persian Scale
3. The Byzantine Scale
4. The Egyptian Scale
5. The Oriental Scale
6. The Japanese/Hirajoshi Scale

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 7. The Asavari Scale (Indian Raga)
8. The Hungarian Gypsy Minor Scale
9. The Romanian Scale
10. The Hijaz Scale
11. Playing Over a Drone
Video
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
12. Introduction to Indian Music for Guitar
The Indian Music System – Introduction
Guitar Tuning – Western vs Indian Tuning
What Are Ragas?
The Indian Equivalent for Western Notes (Swaras)
Melody vs Harmony
How To Play Indian-Style Pentatonic Scales
Video
Suddha Dhanyasi Raga Ascent
Suddha Dhanyasi Raga Descent
Mohanam Raga Ascent
Mohanam Raga Descent
13. More Guitar Scales

Arabian Guitar Scale

This Arabian scale is an octatonic minor scale (it has 8 notes). It is the same scale as the
diminished scale.

A Arabian Scale A B C D Eb F Gb Ab

Formula 1 2 b3 4 #4 #5 6 7

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Persian Guitar Scale
The Persian scale is a major scale with a b2, b5, and b6.

A Persian Scale A Bb C# D Eb F G#

Formula 1 b2 3 4 b5 b6 7

Byzantine Guitar Scale

The Byzantine scale is a major scale with a b2 and b6. This scale is also known as the
Maqam Hijaz Scale or the double harmonic scale.

A Byzantine Scale A Bb C# D E F G#

Formula 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7

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The Egyptian Scale
There are many scales used in Egyptian music, one of them being the Dorian scale.

This scale below is a typical Egyptian pentatonic scale. It is the 5th mode of our minor
pentatonic scale.

A Egyptian Scale A B D E G

Formula 1 2 4 5 b7

Oriental Guitar Scale

The oriental scale is a dominant scale with a b2 and b5.

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 A Oriental Scale A Bb C# D Eb F# G

Formula 1 b2 3 4 b5 6 b7

Japanese Guitar Scales

This Japanese scale is pentatonic (this means it has 5 notes). It’s neither major or minor
because the 3rd is not included.

A Japanese Scale A B D E F

Formula 1 2 4 5 b6

Another Japanese pentatonic scale is the Hirajoshi scale. This minor scale is regularly
used in rock (and jazz) music, in search of new sounds:

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 A Hirajoshi Scale A B C E F

Formula 1 2 b3 5 b6

Indian Guitar Scale

This Indian music scale is called the Asavari scale or raga Asavari.

A raga is something between a scale and a composition: it is richer than a scale, but not
as fixed as a composition. A raga is like a tonal framework for improvisation and
composition, just as chord changes and standards are for a jazz musician.

Besides a particular scale, ragas also have a specific melodic movement, a hierarchy of
tones, a specific intonation, ornamentation, and duration. I’m not going into all the
specifics of this raga, I’ll only tell you that it is played differently ascending and
descending.

Descending, this scale is the same as the Phrygian scale, ascending it’s the Phrygian
scale minus the b3 and b7.

Raga Asavari Ascending A Bb D E F

Formula 1 b2 4 5 b6

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 Raga Asavari Descending A G F E D C Bb

Formula 1 b7 b6 5 4 b3 b2

Hungarian Gypsy Minor Scale

This scale is the Hungarian gypsy scale (minor). Check out this video for a theme that
uses the gypsy minor scale.

Hungarian Gypsy Scale A B C D# E F G#

Formula 1 2 b3 #4 5 b6 7

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Romanian Guitar Scale
The Romanian scale is a minor scale with a #4. This scale is also known as the Ukrainian
Dorian scale, the Miseberach scale, or the altered Dorian scale. It is the 4th mode of the
harmonic minor scale.

Romanian Scale A B C D# E F# G

Formula 1 2 b3 #4 5 6 b7

The Hijaz Scale

The Alhijaz scale is a dominant scale that originates in Saudi Arabia, but is also known
as the Spanish gypsy scale, the Jewish scale, or the Phrygian dominant scale (in jazz).

This scale is the 5th inversion of the harmonic minor scale. The Phrygian dominant
scale is a common scale in jazz and is used to play over dominant chords that resolve to
a minor chord.

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A Alhijaz = A Jewish = A Phrygian dominant = D harmonic minor.

Hijaz Scale A Bb C# D E F G

Formula 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7

There is another Hijaz scale called the Maqam Hijazz scale. This is the same scale as
the Byzantine scale above and also known as the double harmonic scale.

Playing Over a Drone

Written by by Mikko Karhula

A good way to practice these exotic guitar scales is playing over a drone. In this section,
you’ll learn 6 exercises over a meditative drone with an E5 chord voicing. There are only
two notes in the drone (e and b) so you can use different scales and chord types more
freely.

It’s vital for any improvising guitarist to learn the relationship between chords and scales.
However, sometimes it’s interesting to change ”scale-to-chord-thinking” to a more
horizontal approach.

A good way of practicing this is playing over a backing track with a drone, note or chord
that is continuously sounded. Playing with a drone leaves room for finding out how notes
and harmonies work in constant chord harmony. That way you can concentrate on
finding the best sounding tones or experiment with different colors or style elements
within the chosen key.

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Guitar Phrases Over E5 Drone

Backing Track

-+

Exercise 1 [starts at 0:03 in the video]

Bar 1 has an almost Celtic style

ringing Emaj9(add4) chord with first
and fourth finger spreads.
Bar 2’s first four notes imply an Eadd9 chord. The next four notes form a F#add9
chord (from the E Lydian scale), that resolves into a Badd9 chord.

Exercise 2 [starts at 0:17 in the video]

This example is influenced by bebop and

gypsy jazz. Two important things to keep in
mind to get clarity and speed in this example are alternate picking and rest-strokes. The
Main color of this example is E dominant 7.

In the first beat there is a Bm7 arpeggio followed by some chromatism.

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 From the third beat on, the notes come from the E Lydian dominant scale (also
know as Lydian b7 and overtone).
After that, there is an E11 sound in first beat, followed by E13(#11).

Exercise 3 [starts at 0:29 in the video]

This example is influenced by the lute

music composed by Bach, but it moves
forward to modern harmonies at the end of
it.

The first four bars stay in the tonic E.

The fifth bar has a C#m7(b13) chord that is in this case a substitution for an Amaj9
chord.
The last two bars imply a B13 chord.

Exercise 4 [starts at 0:52 in the video]

The Idea in this example is to make a

choral-like two-part canon.

The first and second bars are in

B13b9(sus4) world.
Bar 3 contains an E7 and A7 chord.
The fourth bar has an A major and A
minor chord
The fifth bar B7 and E minor.
Bar 6 is E major.
The Seventh bar is mostly B7b9(sus4).
Bar 8 has a turnaround: E5, Gsus4 and G, F#7 and B7.
The 9th bar: E7, A, Am6 and E.

Exercise 5 [starts at 1:20 in the video]

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This example is mostly in the E dominant
diminished scale and consists of intervallic
jumps and string-skipping.

Exercise 6 [starts at 1:32 in the video]

This example consists of three-part voicings

in the E major scale.

The first bar has an Emaj7 chord with

melody-line.
Bar 2 voicings: E major , F#m, Emaj7,
A major.

About The Author

Mikko Karhula (born in 1981) is a Finnish guitarist and teacher who is mainly focused on
acoustic guitar. His primary style is ethnic music like Balkan and gypsy jazz. Mikko works
as a solo artist and is part of several bands and projects. He has composed music for
Finnish artists in many different styles and composes for solo guitar from jazz to classical.
Make sure you visit his YouTube channel for more videos and lessons!

An Introduction to Indian Classical Music for Guitar

Written by by Prakash Harry

This article gives an introduction to the Indian Music system and its core elements and
provides insight into applying its grammar and technique on guitar.

Classical Indian music and jazz may sound very different but at least one factor is very
important to both styles of music: improvisation.

The Indian Music System – Introduction

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The Indian music system’s origins date back to the Vedic period (2000-6000 years ago).
In this period, several literary texts and verses (Vedas) were sung in musical patterns
which formed the base of the Indian music system.

In later years (14th -15th Century AD), Indian music got broadly classified into two
classical forms of music:

Hindustani music (North India)

Carnatic music (South India)

This divide was mainly due to the difference in styles following the Persian/Mughal
invasion of Northern India, which brought a lot of influence into Hindustani Music.

Though Hindustani and Carnatic Music share a lot of common aspects (phrasing
techniques, similar ragas, etc.), each one has a distinct structure of its own. These
systems have continued to live over the centuries and are still performed with traditional
expertise, and at times also incorporating modern music elements into them.

Guitar Tuning: Western vs Indian Tuning

Although all examples of ragas discussed in this article will relate to the standard western
tuning, this tuning is not the ideal guitar tuning for Indian music.

The ideal guitar tuning for classical Indian Music has alternate strings tuned to the tonic
and the dominant (perfect 5th) notes. The Tonic is normally taken as D or E due to
feasibility issues on the Guitar.

These 2 tunings are typical for Indian music:

In the first tuning, the first (highest) string on the guitar is

omitted.

The reason to use this tuning is that the tonic and the
dominant notes are the least difficult to play in a system
that involves playing defined microtonal slides called
Gamakas.

Gamakas are the main phrasing technique in Indian

Music and it explains how different notes are phrased
relative to each other for different ragas.

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What Are Ragas and How are They Different From Scales?
Ragas form the basis of the classical Indian music system.

A raga may be defined as a specific collection of notes (semitonal values), played

together with a specific grammar of Gamakas (microtonal slides).

Ragas and scales are quite common at the top level. In effect, both ragas and scales
are merely a specific collection of musical notes played in a specific order, in ascent and
descent. However the grammar of the Gamakas and its phrasing brings a completely
different identity/texture to a raga and it cannot be musically compared to its equivalent
scale, played as a collection of plain notes.

The raga is dependent on the specific Gamakas phrasing applied to it (which differs for
each raga), in the absence of which it is merely a collection of notes aka a scale.

The Indian Equivalents for Western Notes

The following table relates the 12 semitones available in the Western tuning system to its
Indian equivalent name references (Swaras).

The basic seven notes in the Indian musical system are Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni with
variations for each note. These variations are notated as a number from 1 to 3 (these
work similar to b and # in Western music).

The manner in which they are named as (Ri/Ga) and (Da/Ni) for same values, depends
on the relative notes occurring in the raga, and differs from case to case.

Before reading the table, you need to understand that Indian music notes are not
absolute values like their western counterparts. They are all relative to the tonic note
(Shadjam), which is fixed to a reference value (for example C or D or any other semitonal
value).

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Here we assume our tonic to be D, for easy reference while playing (in the video more
below we also use the tonic D as Shadjam). This table classifies the 12 semitones of the
Western tuning system to their relative Indian Swara names.

Semitones Indian Swara Equivalent Tone Value

D S – Shadjam (Sa)

D# R1 – Suddha Rishabham (Ri1)

E R2 – Chatusruthi Rishabham (Ri2) G1 – Suddha Gandharam (Ga1)

F R3 – Shatsruthi Rishabham (Ri3) G2 – Sadharana Gandharam

(Ga2)

F# G3 – Anthara Gandharam (Ga3)

G M1 – Suddha Madhyamam (Ma1)

G# M2 – Prati Madhyamam (Ma2)

A P – Panchamam (Pa)

A# D1 – Suddha Dhaivatham (Da1)

B D2 – Chatusruthi Dhaivatham N1 – Suddha Nishadham (Ni1)

(Da2)

C D3 – Shatsruthi Dhaivatham (Da3) N2 – Kaisiki Nishadham (Ni2)

C# N3 – Kakali Nishadham (Ni3)

Melody vs. Harmony

The beauty of the Indian Music system lies in its complex melodic structure, brought
out with the well-defined phrasing technique of Gamakas.

In Western music, scales are built with a strong foundation in harmony. Carnatic music
focuses on permutation of all available semitonal values (swaras). This gives rise to the
foundation of the family of ragas, called the Melakartha System (in Carnatic Music).

The Melakartha system is a set of 72 parent ragas. Each of these ragas contain all
seven notes (swaras) of the octave in both ascending and descending order. These 72
ragas (parent) along with their derived ragas (child) exhaust all possible melodic
combinations available to us through all music forms across the world.

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That brings to light the depth of the melodic structure in Carnatic Music. Hence it is
important to understand that melody and phrasing of Carnatic music is very complex
compared to the Western music system, which in turn shows its complexity in harmony of
musical notes.

How to Play Indian-Style Pentatonic Scales (Carnatic)

In this section, we explore the possibility of playing the well known pentatonic scales, as
equivalent Carnatic ragas. The Ragas we will take for reference are Suddha Dhanyasi
and Mohanam.

Here are the swaras for Suddha Dhanyasi. You’ll notice the notes of the Suddha
Dhanyasi are the same as those of the D minor pentatonic scale:

Suddha Dhanyasi Sa Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ni2

Western notes D F G A C

The video lesson below shows you how to play the runs in the ascent and descent, and
some basic phrasing and improvisation for Suddha Dhanyasi and Mohanam. Try the
phrase improvisation demonstrated in the lesson, after playing the notated ascent-
descent run.

Introduction To Indian Classical Music for Guitar

Below you can find the notation for these ragas. The tabs demonstrate the ascent and
descent playing for Suddha Dhanyasi and Mohanam in order.

The ALL CAPS notes are the syllable of the swara played
The bold-italic notes are the notes to be plucked (on right hand)
The arrows depict the slide flow of notes from one to another (without plucking the
string)
A point after a swara means one octave higher: Sa.

Let me give you the first line (ascent) in the notation below as an example:

Play an open D on the 4th strin

Then strike the open D again, and slide all the way up to G and come back to F on
the same string (all in one flow), without plucking any more notes

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 Strike G and A on the same string
Strike A on the open-G 3rd string, and slide all the way up to D and come back to C
on the same string
Strike D on the 3rd string again

Similarly try the descent approach, applying the same technique.

Suddha Dhanyasi Raga Ascent

Carnatic Notation:
SA | Sa –> Ma –> GA | MA | PA | Pa –> Sa. –> NI | SA |
Western Notation:
D | d –> g –> F | G | A | a –> d –> C | D |

Suddha Dhanyasi Raga Descent

SA. | Sa –> NI | PA | MA | Ma –> GA | Ga –> SA |

D | d –> C | A | G | g –> F | f –> D |

Mohanam Raga Ascent

SA | Sa –> Ga –> RI | GA | PA | Pa –> Sa. –> DA | SA. |

D | d –> f# –> E | F# | A | a –> d –> B | D |

Mohanam Raga Descent

SA. | Sa.–> DA | PA | GA | Ga –> RI | Ga 3 –> Ri –> Ga2 –> SA |

D | d –> B | A | F# | f# –> E | f # –> e –> f –> D |

If you have any questions about this lesson, leave a comment below…

More Guitar Scale Lessons

1. Introduction to Guitar Modes

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2. 7 Essential Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners
3. The Minor Blues Scale
4. The Major Blues Scale
5. The Bebop Scale
6. The Melodic Minor Scale
7. The Altered Scale
8. The Whole Tone Scale

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