Chords for Miyako Bushi scale

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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msf sadib wrote: Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:32 am
Jafo wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:18 am
ChameleonMusic wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:55 pm Miyako bushi is 100% pentatonic...those notes quoted originally are NOT the notes of the Miyako bushi!
Your ire would be better directed at the person responsible for the misunderstanding.
I wouldn't put much faith in this resource if I were you - it states that the scale they show is octotonic (8 notes), yet what they show is clearly a septatonic (7 notes) scale.

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declassified is 100% correct, but I can also add:

1) Tread VERY carefully when researching music theory info on the internet...so many of my students have fallen foul of badly vetted websites over the years!

2) MB is DEFINITELY a 5 note pentatonic scale at it's heart - my info comes from performing with professional Koto players over the years; i trust their knowledge more than anyone else for obvious reasons.

With a root note of D it's CORE components are:

D Eb G A Bb Other notes (F and C mainly in Western terms) can be used as part of improvisations, but very much as passing / auxiliary / subsidiary notes when compared to the main 5. They are NOT part of the scale.

pianoencyclopedia.com has a very mixed reputation for accuracy by the way ( came across it a few times when I taught composition classes)...it's fine for basic piano students, but branches out all over the place and a lot of the extra info lacks clarity and attention to detail.
Mark Taylor, Chameleon Music - Professional composition and sound design for all media since 1994.

https://www.chameleonmusic.co.uk/

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ChameleonMusic wrote: Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:25 pm pianoencyclopedia.com has a very mixed reputation for accuracy by the way ( came across it a few times when I taught composition classes)...it's fine for basic piano students, but branches out all over the place and a lot of the extra info lacks clarity and attention to detail.
The fact that they can't even count the number of notes in a scale accurately is enough to make me think I wouldn't ever consider them a good resource...

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msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... om-scales/



I took a traditional Japanese MIDI file and filtered it using the "In Japan" AKA " Miyako bushi" scale in the Key of C, then I harmoized it using random chord formulas that I selected.


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deleted due to wrong quotation
Last edited by fmr on Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fernando (FMR)

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ValliSoftware wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:22 pm
msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... rom-scales
Naïve concepts, basic concepts and wrong concepts.

Mix things that shouldn't be mixed (wtf the Dominant 7th has to do with Mixolydian? Dominant is a FUNCTION)

I wouldn't trust this to base anything on :roll:
Last edited by fmr on Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fernando (FMR)

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deleted
Fernando (FMR)

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ValliSoftware wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:22 pm
msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... om-scales/



I took a traditional Japanese MIDI file and filtered it using the "In Japan" AKA " Miyako bushi" scale in the Key of C, then I harmoized it using random chord formulas that I selected.

Not quite sure what to say!
Mark Taylor, Chameleon Music - Professional composition and sound design for all media since 1994.

https://www.chameleonmusic.co.uk/

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fmr wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:44 pm
ValliSoftware wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:22 pm
msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... rom-scales
Naïve concepts, basic concepts and wrong concepts.

Mix things that shouldn't be mixed (wtf the Dominant 7th has to do with Mixolydian? Dominant is a FUNCTION)

I wouldn't trust this to base anything on :roll:
100% agree!
Mark Taylor, Chameleon Music - Professional composition and sound design for all media since 1994.

https://www.chameleonmusic.co.uk/

Post

ChameleonMusic wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:53 pm
fmr wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:44 pm
ValliSoftware wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:22 pm
msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... rom-scales
Naïve concepts, basic concepts and wrong concepts.

Mix things that shouldn't be mixed (wtf the Dominant 7th has to do with Mixolydian? Dominant is a FUNCTION)

I wouldn't trust this to base anything on :roll:
100% agree!
Seems like someone with half a music education stretching beyond the limits of his knowledge. I'd avoid this site for sure.

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It's not necessarily as much about music education as just... well, trying to apply theory to something where it is not applicable. Miyako-Bushi scale is only pentatonic in a very literal sense: it has five tones. How it is used, is entirely another matter - it's less so a construct for creating harmony (in the western sense) and rather melodic by its nature.

If you want to make music that uses chords, then you can just use minor or major, or some of the modes where tonicization is practical and easy (so, no Locrian for instance).

If you want to create music in Japanese tradition, then you should forget chords and start reading about it in their terms. Likely you'll find, however, that their tradition is less literate than it is oral and as such, you're better off moving to Japan or get involved with musical circles in whatever country you live in that are within the japanese tradition (by the way - they actually have lots of traditions - Gagaku for instance is still alive and doing well and it's the longest lasting musical subculture known to us in the whole world out of all of the ones that still exist).

If you want to understand Japanese traditional music, then you probably want to read about it. Japanese music tradition is actually very peculiar as it could be reasonably said that they have no match when it comes to their capabilities to adopt and assimilate different kinds of musical cultures. It only took them few years to start writing orchestral pieces in Western tradition - then not long after that, Yasushi Akutagawa was able to pull off even compositions that were very much Russian in their feel - it is honestly phenomenal. Here's an example:

If you want to just "create Japanese vibes" in whatever it is you do, that is just more or less disrespectful and pointless - so I would advise you not to and instead be more creative. There are plenty of western traditions that you can appropriate for such silly ends (just don't do it to jazz) and you probably have easier time with it too. But if you absolutely must, a great place to begin at is to forget chords and start writing melodies with their instruments. Just be warned, many people will consider that tasteless. It would be more appropriate if you actually found out and read about their tradition in the first place, even if you didn't have the opportunity to participate in it directly.

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msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
Simple answer is, ya don’t. The best that can be done is an ersatz or kitschy appropriation of the exotic flavor, glommed onto a background antithetical to what it was that was desirable to appropriate.

There will be occasional exceptions, but where the scalar-based, linear ethnic whole sound is segregated or handled in arranging vis a vis a chord progression thing, which I have heard in certain of Anoushka Shankar’s original song-oriented material.

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redundant
Last edited by jancivil on Fri May 15, 2020 4:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Forgotten wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:18 pm
ChameleonMusic wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:53 pm
fmr wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:44 pm
ValliSoftware wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:22 pm
msf sadib wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 2:54 pm I've come across this scale called Miyako bushi scale.It's a Japanese scale. the notes from the C miyako Bushi scales are C Db D F G Ab A.How do I make regular chords from this sort of scale actually ?
This link describes how to create chords from chord formulas using any scale.
http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/making ... rom-scales
Naïve concepts, basic concepts and wrong concepts.

Mix things that shouldn't be mixed (wtf the Dominant 7th has to do with Mixolydian? Dominant is a FUNCTION)

I wouldn't trust this to base anything on :roll:
100% agree!
Seems like someone with half a music education stretching beyond the limits of his knowledge. I'd avoid this site for sure.
The big problem with this approach is we end up with statements like
Combining D minor and C minor chords gives a distinctive Dorian sound nicknamed the “So What” riff.
IE: There was a full 13th built on the i chord of C Dorian.
A chord by itself does in no way denote a mode. IE: That chord C Eb G Bb D F A is ii7 9 11 13 of Bb major as well. Obvious on its face.
The signature sound of So What is two min7 add4 chords on ii and i.

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jancivil wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 10:56 pmSimple answer is, ya don’t.
That sort of sums it all up really...

Cuts through all the BS and gets to the core of the matter...end of discussion!
Mark Taylor, Chameleon Music - Professional composition and sound design for all media since 1994.

https://www.chameleonmusic.co.uk/

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