Eastern/sitar style

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I really enjoy Indian folk music, the sitar etc, are their scales or tunings you can use to help get this sound?
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  • I've used a EHX Ravish sitar pedal and have various other apps and synths to create the sympathetic strings/drone accompaniment..... This wouldn't be for live - for recording or home noodling - amp settings or gear advice welcome?
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  • hasslehamhassleham Frets: 598
    edited September 2016
    Try this backing track with this scale:




    The best thing about that drone backing track though is that you can just use your ears to explore different scales and learn how to distinguish between them.
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  • F*cking lovely. Can noodle away for hours with that I reckon
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  • steamabacussteamabacus Frets: 1258
    edited September 2016
    Years ago I came up with a tuning on acoustic guitar in order to indulge my love for Indian ragas (I also subsequently dabbled in sitar for a bit but it was too different from guitar and I was too old to be bothered to learn a 'whole new instrument'). The tuning developed from a variation of a D modal tuning (DGDGAD) - I found that I could drop the 2nd string all the way down to a G (so DGDGGD, low to high) giving it a loose, sitar-y vibe when used to play melodies on the 2nd string, with the other strings acting as drones.

    This is something I recorded back in 1996 using this tuning ...

    https://steamabacusproductions.bandcamp.com/track/chandra

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  • Lovely that Steam. Had a right little moment on that. I'll check the tuning out on the acoustic when the kid and wife are up tomorrow. Serious though, for what its worth from an oik like me I really like what you put together there. Thats exactly what I was on about. Had brief look at the other stuff you have on the net as well...... fantastic..... will be exploring more for sure. 
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    edited September 2016
    This is a particular area of interest of mine. The thing that characterises many of these scales is that they often have adjacent semitones or agumented 2nds (or both). Most are either minor, or if they have a major third they tend to have a flattened 2nd. There are a number of scales within the scale families that you can use: 



    Neapolitan major family (has 2 adjacent semitones):

    1st mode: Neapolitan major itself. Starts phrygian, ends major. Semitone at the start and end; otherwise whole tones. Therefore a rare palindrome scale!

    4th mode: Lydian minor. Starts lydian, ends aeolian. Double semitone in the middle. 

    5th mode: Major locrian. Starts Major, then a double semitone, then ends with whole tones.



    Neapolitan minor family (has an augmented 2nd):

    1st mode: neapolitan minor itself. Starts phrygian, ends harmonic minor. 



    Harmonic minor family (has an augmented 2nd):

    4th mode: Ukranian Dorian. Like Dorian but with an augmented 4th.

    5th mode: phrygian dominant. The ony scale Yngwie ever plays - in fact he calls it phrygian! Like Phrygian but with a major 3rd. Harmonic minor is almost never played on the tonic itself - it's almost always the 5th mode that gets played over the dominant chord in a minor key. 



    Persian major family (has 2 augmented 2nds and 2 adjacent semitones):

    1st mode: Persian major itself. Like a phrygian major (aug 2), a diminished 5th and a harmonic minor at the top. Lovely!

    4th mode - my favourite: starts phrygian, has an augmented 4th, ends harmonic minor. Awesome. Here it is: 





    Hungarian major family (has an agmented 2nd):

    1st mode - Hungarian major itself: like the Overtone scale but with a flattened 2. 



    Hungarian minor family (has two augmented 2nds):

    1st mode (Hungarian minor itself). minor with an aug 4 and a harmonic minor ending. Like the 4th mode of Persian but without the flat 2 start. 

    2nd mode: oriental. Flat 2, major 3, diminished 5th, then an aug 2nd to the major 6th, then a flat 7! Nice. 

    5th mode (Flamenco, or snakecharmer): flat 2, major 3 (ie an aug 2nd between 2 and 3), minor 6, major 7 (ie an aug 2nd between 6 and 7). This is a beautiful scale, and its intervals are also palindromic. 

    Hope that's of use!
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • Lovely that Steam. Had a right little moment on that. I'll check the tuning out on the acoustic when the kid and wife are up tomorrow. Serious though, for what its worth from an oik like me I really like what you put together there. Thats exactly what I was on about. Had brief look at the other stuff you have on the net as well...... fantastic..... will be exploring more for sure. 
    Thanks for that. I hope you enjoy exploring the tuning - it's certainly given me years of inspiration.
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  • viz said:

    Thanks Viz - there is loads for me to get my teeth into there......appreciate it
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    edited September 2016
    No prob - you can find them all in this compendium; each set of 7 modes is grouped into its family - they're all in the first 2 rows. You can hear whichever scale you like by clicking the icon below the scale (from a PC). 

    http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • viz said:
    No prob - you can find them all in this compendium; each set of 7 modes is grouped into its family - they're all in the first 2 rows. You can play whichever scale you like by icking the icon below the scale (from a PC). 

    http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx
    That's incredibly helpful. Thank you
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  • rlwrlw Frets: 4671
    viz said:
    No prob - you can find them all in this compendium; each set of 7 modes is grouped into its family - they're all in the first 2 rows. You can play whichever scale you like by icking the icon below the scale (from a PC). 

    http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx
    That's incredibly helpful. Thank you
    That's incredibly complicated to do late at night when you've had a glass of wine too, I imagine.
    Save a cow.  Eat a vegetarian.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    edited September 2016
    And incredibly tedious - programming, listening to and correcting all those midi files!
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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