Ukulele 101: Chords, Scales & Basic Theory by Johnson Frederick

Author:Johnson, Frederick [Johnson, Frederick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

4. Ethnic Scales 1: The Hawaiian Scale

Alas, we come to a new variety of scale - the ethnic scales. Just as their name implies, ethnic scales derive from a musical culture or ethnic tradition. In this section of the book, we’re going to be exploring six of these: the Hawaiian scale, the Japanese Scale, the Jewish Scale and the Hungarian scale.

Why should you learn ethnic scales?

I’ve been playing the ukulele for a long time and my experience has been as a teacher, performer and student, so I have a variety of perspectives. However, throughout my schooling and general musical interactions, I was never taught ethnic scales. It was only when I actively traveled to various places across the globe that I realised that there was a distinctive ‘sound’ to the music of various cultures. When I discovered that this secret element resided in the existence of ethnic scales, it baffled me that they weren’t being taught in music classes anywhere! Not only are ethnic scales really useful for the sake of diverse musical awareness and knowledge, but they sound great, and in the case of this first scale (Hawaiian ), they can help us to appreciate the origins of our instrument, and how it was supposed to sound like when it was first conceived.

We often associate the ukulele with folk music and the beaches of the great US state of Hawaii, but you must bear in mind that the ukulele isn’t unique to ‘western’ music and pop culture. It exists and is used in the Near and Middle East, in North Africa, across eastern and southern Asia, Australasia and even in Eastern Europe. An appreciation for how different cultures interpret the small four stringed instrument that we know and love is indispensable for our own understanding of the music we play and create.

We’ll start with the Hawaiian ethnic scale.

What you might notice when playing the ethnic scales in this book, is that they’re actually really simple and straight forward. In this way, you can appreciate how it’s the subtleties in music that make it sound beautiful, not the complexities or the speed you play at to impress one or two people.

. .

First, we’ll identify the notes in the Hawaiian scale:

A : A, B, C, D, E, Gb, Ab, A

B : B, Db, D, E, Gb, Ab, Bb, B

C : C, D, Eb, F, G, A, B, C

D : D, E, F, G, A, B, Db, D

E : E, Gb, G, A, B, Db, Eb, E

F : F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D, E, F

G : G, A, Bb, C, D, E, Gb, G

So what is unique about the Hawaiian scale? Let’s look at the Hawaiian scale in A and we’ll break it down.

A - B - C - D - E - Gb - Ab - A

What really renders this scale different to others is the turning point we face between notes 6 , 7 and 8 .

In the case of the scale shown above, we have what I would call a typical rundown of A through E in regular whole step intervals.

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