A makam is a melodic system defined by a particular scale (its pitches and intervals), a tonic (karar), a dominant (güçlü) and a seyir, that is, the way the melody moves through the scale. Two makams that use the same scale can be told apart by their seyir.

The karar (tonic) is the resting pitch on which a makam ends its melody. The güçlü (dominant) is the second most important resting pitch in the scale and is usually where the tetrachord and the pentachord of the scale meet.

Scales are formed by joining segments called tetrachords and pentachords, such as Rast, Uşşak, Hicaz, Kürdi, Buselik and Çargah. Intervals are measured in commas: a bakiye is 4 commas, a küçük mücenneb 5, a büyük mücenneb 8, a tanini 9 and an augmented second 12–13.

The makam scales were prepared according to the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek theory. Since the kanun here uses a single mandal setting for each note name, for pitches that change between ascending and descending the most characteristic form of the makam was chosen. The content has not yet been approved by an expert; if you spot a mistake, you can write to us through the contact page.