12-Hole-Ocarina-Scales on 12 Hole Ocarina Tabs

Blues Scales

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Blues Scales
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A blues scale is a minor pentatonic scale with one extra note squeezed in, the flattened fifth, and that single added note is where the bluesy, slightly sour sound comes from. This page gives two of them, a D blues scale and a G blues scale, for the days you want the ocarina to sound a little lowdown.

Hirajoshi Japanese Scale

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Hirajoshi Japanese Scale
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Hirajoshi is a five-note scale from Japan, best known as a tuning for the koto, the long plucked zither. Where most Western pentatonic scales avoid half steps, this one has two of them, between B and C and again between E and F. Those tight little steps are what give it the dark, faraway sound many listeners hear as Japanese.

Major Scale

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Major Scale
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This scale is worth learning by heart. I like to sit on the edge of the bathtub, where the tile gives a big echo, and just play it up and down. Even on its own it sounds good, and slowing down on a few notes of it is a fine way to make something expressive without any song at all.

Middle Eastern Scale

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Middle Eastern Scale
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Western theory calls this pattern the Phrygian dominant scale, and it is close kin to the maqam Hijaz heard in Arabic and Turkish music. What gives it away is the gap in the middle of the climb, a step of a tone and a half that the ordinary major and minor scales never take.

Native American Scale

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Native American Scale
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I love what this scale does to the ocarina. Hold yourself to these five notes and it almost turns into a different instrument, closer in sound to a wooden flute than to the sweet little vessel you started with. The set matches the minor pentatonic tuning that most Native American style flutes are built around.

Pentatonic Scale

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Pentatonic Scale
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Pentatonic simply means five notes. This one uses A, C, D, E and G, which is the minor pentatonic when you start on A and the major pentatonic when you start on C. It has no half steps at all, so no two notes ever rub against each other. Play the black keys of a piano and you get the same kind of scale, which is why it turns up in folk music in so many parts of the world.

12-Hole-Ocarina-Scales on 12 Hole Ocarina Tabs

Blues Scales

About the Blues Scales #

Hirajoshi Japanese Scale

About the Hirajoshi Japanese Scale #

Major Scale

About the Major Scale #

Middle Eastern Scale

About the Middle Eastern Scale #

Native American Scale

About the Native American Scale #

Pentatonic Scale

About the Pentatonic Scale #

About the Blues Scales
#

About the Hirajoshi Japanese Scale
#

About the Major Scale
#

About the Middle Eastern Scale
#

About the Native American Scale
#

About the Pentatonic Scale
#