Phrygian dominant scale
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The Phrygian dominant scale is constructed by raising the third of the Phrygian scale and is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, the fifth being the dominant. It has the word "dominant" in its name because like the dominant seventh chord it has a major 3rd note and a flattened 7th note.
It is often known as a Spanish Phrygian scale or Spanish gypsy scale, and is commonly used in flamenco music. It is also known as Ahava Rabboh or Freygish when used in Hebrew prayers and Klezmer music (earning it the additional title of the Jewish scale), or as the Hijaz maqam when used in Turkish or Arabic music. Often, it has found application in modern progressive rock/metal, having been utilized notably by the band Dream Theater, and by Joe Satriani, who cites the Phrygian dominant as his favorite scale, along with Fred Ardiel, a guitar teacher in the Capilano College Jazz Studies program. The scale is unusual as the interval between the second and third degrees is an augmented second - giving it a "patchy" quality, like its sister, the harmonic minor scale.
The sequence of steps comprising the Phrygian dominant scale is
When related to the scale degrees of the major scale, it reads like so:
1 - b2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - b6 - b7 - 1
Beginning on C, the scale is as follows: C - Db - E - F - G - Ab - Bb - C
[edit] Examples in popular music
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Jimmy Somerville's "So Cold The Night", Pink Floyd's Matilda Mother and Shakira's "Ojos Así/Eyes Like Yours" use the Phrygian dominant scale. Popular guitarist Joe Satriani also teaches a lesson for guitar on the phrygian dominant scale.
Metallica's Kirk Hammett has been known to use the Phrygian scale, most notably in the solo for "Wherever I May Roam" and "Eye of the Beholder".
"Hava Nagila" also uses this scale.
"YYZ" by Rush uses the Spanish Phrygian scale in the solo.
"Mother" by The Police uses this scale extensively, including the solo, as well as the guitar solo in "Bombs Away".
The main theme music for the television series Rome is written in Phrygian dominant.
In the ParaWorld computer game, the background music when playing as the Dustrider tribe is in the Phrygian dominant scale.
"The Last Stop" by Dave Matthews Band is another example.
The melodic death metal band The Black Dahlia Murder uses much of the Phrygian scale in almost all of their songs.
Technical/brutal death metal band Nile make use of the Phrygian dominant scale in nearly every song, for both solos and riffs, to create a Middle Eastern feel to the music.
The song "Not Everyone" by Nine Black Alps is an example of its use in Alternative Rock as it switches between Phrygian Dominant, Minor and Blues Pentatonic.
Metal guitarist James Murphy is noted for using Phrygian Dominant throughout most of his career on multiple songs, most obviously on Testament's "Dog Faced Gods" from the album Low and Only Human's "Winter and the Dancing Leeches" from the album The Dismantling.
[edit] External links
| Musical scales by | edit |
| # | pentatonic | hexatonic | heptatonic | octatonic | chromatic | |
| Types | Altered | Bebop | Diatonic scale | Enharmonic | Jazz scale | Minor scale | |
| Name | Acoustic | Blues | Bohlen-Pierce | Diatonic | Double harmonic | Half diminished | Harmonic major | Lydian dominant | Major | Major locrian | Pelog | Phrygian dominant scale | Slendro | |
| "Ethnic" name | Arabic | Gypsy | Jewish | |
| Modes of the diatonic scale | edit |
| Ionian (I) | Dorian (II) | Phrygian (III) | |
| Lydian (IV) | Mixolydian (V) | Aeolian (VI) | Locrian (VII) | |
| Modes of the melodic minor scale | edit |
| Melodic minor (I) | Dorian b2 (II) | Lydian Augmented (III) | |
| Lydian Dominant (IV) | Mixolydian b13(V) | Locrian #2 (VI) | | Altered (VII) | |
