"Vakulabharanam" scale

Lango-Django

Anybody every used this Egyptian sounding scale?

C C# E F G G# A# C

Mr. Google tells me that this scale has a name: "Vakulabharanam"

I stumbled upon it playing my banjo, attempting to ape a funny belly-dancing tune.

It sounds kind of vaguely minor, even though it has a major third, but I don't think it can actually be categorized as either major or minor.

Sounds real nice on plectrum banjo because you can play it over droning open C and G strings, and its fun to fool around with.

Bones

Hey Will, isn't that the same as F harmonic minor? Yeah it's used a lot in GJ but mostly in the context of C7 it usually becomes just C7b9 arp. Not usually the whole scale but that said there are a lot of examples where the whole scale is used even by Django.

Lango-Django

Aha! Thanks, Mike, you are absolutely correct!

Jazzaferri

Its actualy the 5th mode of the Harmonic minor scale and is used in Indian and middle Eastern music a lot. I riff on it most every day on sax to a tanpura

C Db E F G Ab Bb C are the correct note names. The raised E instead of the usual Eb as would be dicatated by the key signature of 4 flats F minor.

There is another similar scale using all the same notes excedpt a B instead of a Bb which gives two minor third jumps

wim

Bones wrote:

Not usually the whole scale but that said there are a lot of examples where the whole scale is used even by Django

A good example is the bridge section in "Django's bolero", that's this same sound - probably even exactly these notes if I'm remembering correctly.

Jazzaferri wrote: »

There is another similar scale using all the same notes excedpt a B instead of a Bb which gives two minor third jumps

I've heard that one called Hungarian scale. It can works well over the A section of a tune like Caravan. But the sound of this scale maybe a bit limiting, it has too much a strong flavour and so gets tiring on the ears early..

Buco

Wim Glenn wrote: »

It can works well over the A section of a tune like Caravan. But the sound of this scale maybe a bit limiting, it has too much a strong flavour and so gets tiring on the ears early..

That's pretty much my avenue over Caravan.
So now I know why audience goes from to (: by the time I'm done

wim

Buco wrote: »

That's pretty much my avenue over Caravan.
So now I know why audience goes from to (: by the time I'm done

Heh. Well, it's a tiring tune, so many bars of V7!! I found a nice thing to use on Caravan, you can put sounds from the IVm6 and it works well. So, when the rhythm is on the C7 and moves up to a C#7, you counter down and use some Bb-6 arpeggios. Changing between C7(b9) arpeggios and Bb-6 arpeggios, you can get some nice movement happening so it doesn't sound like too much V.

You can actually use the sound successfully as the rhythm player too if you pick good voicing, the first inversion keeps the good bass movement going - i.e. just taking the C7 and raise the root and the 3rd a fret, keeping the 5th and 7th in place. Instead of shifting up and down between C7 and C#7(boring!), sometimes I'll use the C

[8 10 10 9 . .]

and Bb-6 voicing like

[9 10 8 10 . .]

Buco

This is cool but I'm little confused with this C shape?

wim

Buco wrote: »

This is cool but I'm little confused with this C shape?

yeah...? what's wrong with it?

bopster

"Anniversary Song" has the extended V7 that is perfect for this as well.

Buco

Wim Glenn wrote: »

Buco wrote: »

This is cool but I'm little confused with this C shape?

yeah...? what's wrong with it?

Hah I was way overthinking it, holly cow, it's a vanilla C triad.
Too much coffee and too little sleep.
It actually sounds nice in the context of the change to that Bb-6 shape.