Today, we’ll be taking a journey into the world of middle-eastern influenced music. Of the scales I’ll be blogging about, the Phrygian dominant scale is not only one the most mainstream, but also one of the best sounding, and one of my favorites to play and write songs in. It consists of a major scale with a flat second, sixth, and seventh. It can also be thought of as a Phrygian scale with a major third, or as the fifth mode of the harmonic minor mode. Because it has both the flat second and flat sixth typical to a Phrygian scale as well as the natural third and flat seventh of the dominant mode (aka Mixolydian mode), its name is an amalgamation of those two scales. To play it for yourself in the key of C, the notes are C-Db-E-F-G-Ab-Bb-C.
The Phrygian Dominant scale has two main attributes that give it such an odd sound. The first is the augmented second (aka 3 half steps) between the second and third scale degrees. As I’ve previously mentioned, augmented intervals always tend to have a curious, Middle Eastern tone to them, regardless of where they appear in the scale. The other curious attribute is the combination of a major third with a minor sixth and seventh. In comaprison to the rest of the scale, the major third stands out as the only “happy” sounding note in the scale, and without it the scale would sound downtrodden and sad. However, it has, as a whole, a jazzy character that can be used both in sad and happy songs.
The Phrygian Dominant scale is extremely prevalent in middle eastern music, especially Arabic, Egyptian, and Jewish Music. It is also well known as the Freygish Scale or, in Hebrew, Ahava Rabbah. It is one of the most important scales of the Klezmer genre, aka “Jewish Jazz”. A common example of this is the Jewish Cultural standard, “Hava Naglia”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tot8kOjvhr8
Or Dick Dale’s “Misirlou”, a surf-rock standard that is little known to be a cover of a much older arabian folk song of the same name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8
And since we’re bringing that up, I might as well point out that “Pump it” by the black eyed peas, which heavily relies upon a sample of Dick Dale’s Misirlou, is also written in the Phrygian Dominant Scale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaI2IlHwmgQ
Some other random favorites also in Phrygian Dominant include the delightfully psychedelic klezmer rendition of “Paran” by John Zorn, performed by his Masada Chamber Ensemble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhGe1F4axcQ
However, this scale is not limited to folk music and folk music samples. Kurt Cobain of the 90’s grunge legend, wrote and recorded “Love Buzz” with his band Nirvana and released it on their lesser-known first album, Bleach. You can here the edgy, driving tone of the flat second and the major third in the base line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLthJDXbq6Y
Wikipedia and other sources also claim that the 80’s neo-classical electric guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen makes frequent use of the Phrygian Dominant scale, but I don’t have the patience to listen to, well, any Yngwie Malmsteen, so I’ll leave you instead with another jewish folk tune I’ve come to adore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxoCnBclUno