Maqam Zanjaran (Mixolydian b2)

[Rusty Strings]

Greetings !
A jolly little jam I'd like to share. I hope you enjoy.
In this piece of modal chord progression I made use of the following chords: E, E7, E6, Dm, D6(no 3rd). To ensure the ear does not wander away from the tonic, there is repetitive staccato rhythm on E bass note through out on the second main beat. The soloing is to and from the notes of E7 b2.
Maqam Zanjaran is bold and playful and can become raucous very easily and has a fair dose of seriousness without becoming sentimental. When played slow, Zanjaran can sound sweet and fairy tale like. Maqam Zanjaran western name is Mixolydian b2 and is the 5th mode of maqam Shawq Afza / Harmonic Major scale ( Ionian b6) .
When looking at it from Phrygian prospective, it has Major 3rd similarly to the Phrygian Major (the 5th mode of Harmonic minor) and in addition the Major 6th provides bright dorian flavour. However, maqam Zanjaran conveys the Mixolydian flavour and treating it as such yields more clarity when western harmony and chord progressions are utilised.

 

[Maggot Brain]

Very cool man, really digging your video. I am uneducated on the theory and terminology but kinda understand and always loved that eastern style. Reminds me of the likes of Paint it Black, The End and of course afew of George's songs with The Beatles. I always loved a solo/riff/run Hendrix does at the end of Message of Love on the South Saturn Delta album.

You can even find it's influence in Spanish music ala Flamenco and "Classical" pieces from Spain.

Cool stuff!

 

[Rusty Strings]

Very cool man, really digging your video. I am uneducated on the theory and terminology but kinda understand and always loved that eastern style. Reminds me of the likes of Paint it Black, The End and of course afew of George's songs with The Beatles. I always loved a solo/riff/run Hendrix does at the end of Message of Love on the South Saturn Delta album.

You can even find it's influence in Spanish music ala Flamenco and "Classical" pieces from Spain.

Cool stuff!

Thank you very much for your kind words, I am so glad somebody likes it as I put a lot of time and effort into studying and practising this niche stuff. I was drawn into the harmonic Major through maqam Saba Zamzam (3rd mode of harmonic Major), and through reversing Lydian #2 (the 6th mode of harmonic minor), I was getting locrian bb7 (the 7th mode of harmonic Major). In fact modes of harmonic Major and harmonic minor are mirror opposites. Before that I was fascinated by the symmetry in scales of double harmonic (maqam Hijaz Kar) and then by modes of major scale >>> Mixolydian is intervalic mirror opposite with Aeolian, Lydian with Locrian, Ionian with Phrygian and Dorian with itself. I find several modes of both harmonic Major and harmonic minor uniquely expressive which sets them apart from modes of standard major scale or melodic minor scale, although I have my favourite modes there as well. The drawback of the harmonic Major and harmonic minor is, the fewer the chords in the progression the better for modal sound when soloing over, because Arab scale system does not use functional harmony apart from fifths and octaves, it is all melody and rhythm and most of their maqamat (scales) are microtonal and only a few are compatible with the western equal temperament tuning. I would not remember this if it did not make a logical sense to me. Here I add the maps of Harmonic Major (with E Mixolydian b2) and Harmonic minor (with E Phrygian Dominant)

 

[junk notes]

You are becoming my favorite enthusiastic student.
Having a fretboard in front of you while practicing is a huge difference going off paper, as the pen is mightier than the sword.

If you want to find out the rest of the chords to that mode, there is a way to map out the fretboard and get all seven chords.

 

[Rusty Strings]

You are becoming my favorite enthusiastic student.
Having a fretboard in front of you while practicing is a huge difference going off paper, as the pen is mightier than the sword.

If you want to find out the rest of the chords to that mode, there is a way to map out the fretboard and get all seven chords.

lol and thanks.
Yes, having a paper in front of you makes a huge difference, the learning is much faster. The rest of the chords are found easily but only a few/or almost literally only a couple are useful to highlight certain modes for soloing over, otherwise the sound turns into an undefined mud or the progression gravitates to the naturally most significant mode, that is what I find anyway. I wish I could utilise most of the chords but it just does not apply in certain modes of the harmonic Major nor harmonic minor, ymmv.