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Miras-ı Saz

Lesson 5 / 19 · First makams

Rast

One of the fundamental makams of Turkish makam music; its tonic (karar) is Rast (G) and its dominant (güçlü) is Neva (D). Learning makams usually begins with Rast.

  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 Rast pentachord (T K S T) on Rast with the Rast tetrachord (T K S) on Neva.

Melodic progression (seyir)

It follows an ascending melodic path (seyir): the melody moves around the dominant Neva and comes to rest on the tonic Rast. When descending, Acem is usually used instead of Eviç.

In the dictionary

A fundamental makam whose karar is Rast (G) and whose güçlü is Neva (D). Its scale is made of the Rast pentachord plus a Rast tetrachord built on Neva; when descending, Acem is mostly used instead of Eviç. Dictionary entry

Example pieces from the archive (53 in total)

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

Related concepts

  • Rast: The main pitch taken as the starting point of the Turkish pitch system; written as G in Western notation. Makams such as Rast, Mahur and Nihavend come to rest on this pitch; the octave above it is called Gerdaniye.
  • Rast tetrachord: A tetrachord made of a tanini, a büyük mücenneb and a küçük mücenneb (T K S: 9 + 8 + 5 commas); built on the pitch Rast it gives the pitches Rast–Dügah–Segah–Çargah.
  • Çıkıcı seyir (ascending path): A type of seyir in which the melody starts from the karar or its surroundings, moves up toward the high register, and then returns to the karar. Makams such as Uşşak and Rast are of this type.