Oriental

A major third above a flat second

The augmented second between the flat second and the major third is the first thing the ear catches, and it is shared with the Byzantine scale and the Phrygian dominant. What separates this one is what happens above: the fifth is flattened and the sixth is natural, so the upper half refuses to settle the way those two do.

The flat fifth is not a passing note here — it is a degree of the scale, and melodies built on it sit on that interval rather than moving through it. That is what makes the scale sound suspended rather than resolved.

Building it from any root

Count: half, augmented second, half, half, augmented second, half, whole. In C the notes are C D♭ E F G♭ A B♭; in E, E F G♯ A B♭ C♯ D; in A, A B♭ C♯ D E♭ F♯ G.

Two of the seven degrees are altered from the Mixolydian mode that otherwise underlies it, and thinking of it that way — a dominant scale with a flat second and a flat fifth — makes it easier to place under the hand than memorising seven separate notes.

Names and origins

Western theory books list it under Oriental, which is a nineteenth-century label rather than a description of a specific tradition, and the scale is also filed as the fifth mode of the double harmonic scale in some sources. Arabic practice has intervals like these across several maqamat, and the correspondence is approximate rather than exact.

Naming matters here more than usual: what English-language material calls the Oriental scale is a Western construction assembled from a broad idea of eastern music, and it is honest to use it as a set of intervals rather than as a claim about any one culture's music.

The chords underneath

The tonic is a dominant-seventh shape with a flattened fifth — C E G♭ B♭ from C — so the scale belongs over altered dominant chords rather than over major or minor triads. That is the practical way in: it works where a 7♭5 is already sounding.

Beyond that chord the harmony is thin, and the scale is used melodically over a static bass more often than it is harmonised. A drone on the root and the fourth is the usual setting.

On guitar, piano and flute

On guitar it lies awkwardly under the hand until the two augmented seconds are treated as slides rather than as fretted steps, which is how players in the relevant traditions phrase them anyway. On piano it is easier to see than to voice: the flat fifth and the natural sixth sit adjacent in a way that resists chord shapes.

On flute and other single-line instruments it comes into its own, because the scale is fundamentally melodic. A great deal of what makes it convincing is ornament between the degrees rather than the degrees themselves.

What it is confused with

The Phrygian dominant is the closest neighbour and by far the more common scale: 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7, with a natural fifth and a flat sixth. Swapping the two is the usual error, and the difference is audible immediately over a chord.

The Byzantine scale shares the lower four notes and diverges above them, with a natural fifth and a leading tone. Where this scale hangs unresolved, that one closes.

Frequently asked questions