Suitable for percussive playing and oriental or spanish sounding melodies.
Styles :Arabic melodies and atmospheres.
The Hijaz scale is very common in Middle Eastern, Arabic, Flamenco and classical music. It is also quite common in many movie scores. It has often referred to this variety of scales admiringly as “Spicy”.
These variations can be very suspenseful but also compelling, mysterious, exotic, and even quite sensual like a romantic breeze from the desert sands of timelessness. 😉
The Hijaz scale is a Harmonic Minor. The only difference from the minor scale is a sharpened 7th note of the scale, which provides a compelling and triumphant major chord to dance around when playing progressions. Depending on which note is the foundation of a melody, it can also be considered a Phrygian Dominant scale.