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Miras-ı Saz

Lesson 19 / 19 · New makams

Mahur

A bright, exuberant makam with Rast (G) as its tonic and the high Gerdaniye (G) as its dominant, resembling the major scale of Western music.

  1. Read the makam page

    Its scale, tonic and dominant pitches, structure and seyir.

  2. Listen to the scale

    Ascending and descending scale: keep the tonic in your ear.

  3. Test your ear

    Five questions: which makam does the scale being played belong to? Get at least four right.

  4. Play and get scored

    Turn on the microphone and slowly play or sing the scale from tonic to tonic. We measure how many commas each pitch deviates; 70% or more passes.

  5. Play a piece in this makam

    Play a piece from the sheet music archive and follow the score.

Lesson notes

Structure

It is formed by the Çargah pentachord (T T B T) on Rast and the Çargah tetrachord (T T B) on Neva; the pitch Mahur (F sharp) is used.

Melodic progression (seyir)

It follows a descending melodic path (seyir): it starts around the high Gerdaniye and comes to rest on Rast.

In the dictionary

A makam with karar Rast and güçlü high Gerdaniye. Its scale is made of a Çargah pentachord built on Rast plus a Çargah tetrachord built on Neva; it has a descending seyir and resembles the major scale. Dictionary entry

Example pieces from the archive (48 in total)

The Mahur makam page: scale, seyir and all its pieces

Related concepts

  • Mahur: An in-between pitch a tanini above Hüseyni; F raised by 5 commas (F küçük mücenneb sharp), 4 commas below Gerdaniye. It is the characteristic pitch of the makam Mahur; an octave below it is called Geveşt.
  • Çargah tetrachord: A tetrachord made of two taninis and a bakiye (T T B: 9 + 9 + 4 commas); built on Çargah it gives the pitches Çargah–Neva–Hüseyni–Acem. It resembles the major tetrachord of Western music.
  • İnici seyir (descending path): A type of seyir in which the melody starts from the high register of the scale and descends step by step toward the karar. Makams such as Mahur and Muhayyer are of this type.