Members opranks612 Posted February 20, 2005 Members Share Posted February 20, 2005 Anyone know of any good chinese sounding scales to play around with? I read on the net that the ancient chinese used mostly pentonic scales, which is pretty interesting, but I don't know if it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bdemon Posted February 20, 2005 Members Share Posted February 20, 2005 Check this place out: http://home.swipnet.se/freakguitar/scales.html Iwato, Kumoi, Kokinyoshi...a few of the "Asian" sounding scales I've come across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members qwerty Posted February 20, 2005 Members Share Posted February 20, 2005 > the ancient chinese used mostly pentonic scales, which is pretty interesting, For what it's worth, a Chinese restaurant I used to go to played moderately traditional music over the speakers. The scales in the very sweet songs were pentatonic. So yes, there is at least some truth there. Beyond that, I know nothing. Those words sound Japanese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terje Posted February 20, 2005 Members Share Posted February 20, 2005 If you play a major pentatonic scale, put a crazy vibrato on the long notes and make some interval jumps now and then you're gonna start sounding pretty damn Chinese in no time. There's of course much more to it but this will get you close, just like the Harmonic Minor will give you a general "Mideastern sound". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted February 24, 2005 Members Share Posted February 24, 2005 You can play just about any sequence of fifths and it will sound oriental. I tend to like the root above the fifth myself, otherwise it sound more power chordy. But, the root below the fifth works too, just think Turning Japanese, or China Girl Try this slowly letting the every third group of notes of the sequence hang a little bit before moving to the next sequence of notes.... -12--12---9--------------------------- -12--12---9---12--12--9------------ ---------------11--12--9--------------- --------------------------10--10---9-- --------------------------10--10---9-- ----------------------------------------- You'll see that this is nothing more than select groups of notes out of a pentatonic scale. Most oriental scales, in the tradition sense, rarely have more than five notes in them. When you start getting into the Harmonic Minor and it's modes you get more of an "exotic" sound rather than an "oriental" sound. Just play your pentatonic scales slowly and maybe give some wider interval movements and you'll be Turning Japanese before you know it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LosBoleros Posted February 25, 2005 Members Share Posted February 25, 2005 Yes , while most Chinese melodies are Pentatonic, their tuning is alittle different than ours. It would be really kool if someone could shed some light on how to actually tune an instrument like the Chinese Pentatonic scales. Is it possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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