Skip to content
Miras-ı Saz

Lesson 8 / 19 · First makams

Nihavend

A makam with Rast (G) as its tonic and Neva (D) as its dominant, known for a structure resembling the minor 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 joining the Buselik pentachord (T B T T) on Rast with the Kürdi tetrachord (B T T) on Neva; at times the Hicaz tetrachord on Neva is also used.

Melodic progression (seyir)

The melody moves around the dominant Neva and comes to rest on Rast.

In the dictionary

A makam with karar Rast and güçlü Neva. Its scale is made of a Buselik pentachord built on Rast plus a Kürdi (or Hicaz) tetrachord built on Neva; it resembles the minor scale of Western music. Dictionary entry

Example pieces from the archive (46 in total)

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

Related concepts

  • Buselik tetrachord: A tetrachord made of a tanini, a bakiye and a tanini (T B T: 9 + 4 + 9 commas); built on Dügah it gives the pitches Dügah–Buselik–Çargah–Neva.
  • Kürdi tetrachord: A tetrachord made of a bakiye and two taninis (B T T: 4 + 9 + 9 commas); built on Dügah it gives the pitches Dügah–Kürdi–Çargah–Neva.