Middle Eastern Musical Techniques in Healing Music Contexts

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1 1 Middle Eastern Musical Techniques in Healing Music Contexts Webinar with Dr. Diana Rowan BrightKnowledgeGuild.com Growing up in Cyprus and Iraq, Middle Eastern music is part of my soul. Its passion, power and reverence for life teach me something new every day. When I hear Middle Eastern music, two features spring into focus: TONALITY: evocative, unusual scales underpinned by one harmony, or very simple root note changes at most RHYTHM: powerful, sinuous, whether free time (played very freely, no regular beat) or metered (with a regular beat) For this workshop, we ll focus on these two elements and how they support music in healing contexts. Background Music is a huge part of Middle Eastern culture, ranging from spiritual chants to party music. The belief that music is profoundly healing is strong throughout the MiddleEast. As with Western music, there are distinct folk, classical and pop/rock traditions, as well as sacred and secular approaches. For this workshop, I ll be using music from Arabic countries, Turkey, Persia, and Israel. The Middle East can also encompass countries such as Azerbaijan and Armenia. The term Middle East is somewhat arbitrary, yet you ll hear a strong connection between all these types of music.

2 2 A great way to get familiar with Middle Eastern music is to explore on YouTube, for example: Ross Daly performing Hatif in Arabic style: Fairouz, one of the most respected Arabic singers: Persian classical music trio: Turkish Sufi (spiritual) music: Traditional Jewish folk vocal harmonies song: Lebanese rock music (for reference only, definitely not for healing music contexts!) asucdemnwoj3en3kl2p0- Turkish pop/techno music (ditto!)

3 3 TONALITY Middle Eastern scales go way beyond major and minor (Ionian and Aeolian modes). Middle Eastern scales even go beyond the 5 other modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian) we re familiar with in Western music. In fact, Middle Eastern scales/modes/maqamat (Arabic word for modes) number in the dozens, although only around are in common use today. Here, we re going to cover 3 maqamat/modes which are used extensively in Middle Eastern, Eastern European and flamenco music. They re super useful to know, and perfect for healing music contexts. All of the regions we re covering have linked histories; it s not surprising they share scales too! [Sidenote: microtones (notes existing between our semitones i.e. quarter tones and even smaller) are a big feature in Middle Eastern music, and create a huge amount of expression. However, we ll only be covering semitones in this webinar.] The three modes we ll look at are: Hijaz Freygish Kurdi (known as Phrygian Mode in Western music, also a favorite mode of Hildegard von Bingen isn t it beautiful the way so many of these concepts overlap?) Here are Hijaz in E and D (D is more common if you re playing with Middle Eastern musicians, who often tune their instruments in D), followed by E Phrygian/Kurdi:

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5 5 Freygish mode is exactly like Hijaz with an optional raised 7th degree. So, if E is your tonic, you can raise D# If D is your tonic, you can raise C#. In Freygish you can play both the flattened and raised 7th in one song/improv for extra effect! Mode formulae Here are the formulae for the modes, so you can play them in ANY key, not just the ones mentioned on the handout (again, you'll see what I mean when you watch the video) - Hijaz half-1.5-half-whole-half-whole-whole (like natural minor with flattened 2nd + raised 3rd) Freygish half-1.5-half-whole-half-half-whole (same as Hijaz but with raised 7th) Kurdi half-whole-whole-whole-half-whole-whole (Like natural minor with flattened 2nd) This will make sense when you watch the video :) Ideas for how to use these modes A fun way to incorporate these modes/scales into you known pieces is to play the same contour of a known song, but play it in one of these scales. I ll show you For harpists this is very easy, simply set your levers to, say, Hijaz, and off you go! Play the song you re used to, but it ll automatically come out sounding very different in this mode. Of course, improvisation is also a wonderful way to use these modes. Let s try some!

6 6 ***A NOTE ON IMPROV My best recommendation for getting started with improvisation is bringing it back to the basics of human communication. How do we speak to each other? How do we sing? From these two fundamental forms of communication, we can hear a wealth of phrase shapes, phrase lengths, rhythms, ranges, and much more. Music is a language, and if we reflect how we truly speak with each other, we create honest and compelling art.

7 7 Ornamentation Middle Eastern music is not based on chord progressions the same way Western music is. Instead, it is more horizontally oriented, meaning: => it s development of the melodic material that matters, not the development of harmonies <= So, ornamentation and variation become very big deals in providing expression and contrast. Examples of Middle Eastern ornaments (non-music readers, don t worry, I ll demo these live!) try incorporating these into your songs and improvisations:

8 8 Chords We now know that Middle Eastern music is horizontal, as opposed to vertical (visualize Western chords stacked vertically on the page). So, often the tonic/home note sounds throughout the piece being performed. Triads (for example, C-E-G) are usually not used except in more modern music. Favor open 5ths instead (C-G, no E). The tonic/home note forms a bed upon which you can improvise freely without the need to fill the piece full of notes (a tendency many of us have!) Absolutely wonderful for healing contexts. Besides playing the drone on your instrument, you can lay an additional drone (or turn drone duties over altogether) by using one of many apps available such as itabla. This is also very useful for singers. In addition, try cello drones on YouTube - these are great for accompanying Celtic and other Western style pieces. Sources: itabla Cello drones on YouTube Once you are comfortable with the horizontal approach, which is crucial to Middle Eastern style, there is one chord progression (quotation marks because it s not exactly a chord progression, but that s a long story ) that can be used with Hijaz, Freygish and Kurdi (Phrygian):

9 9 RHYTHM Middle Eastern rhythms are instantly recognizable, hypnotic and compelling. For the characteristic dum /lower sound, use lower notes. For the tek /higher sound, use higher notes. 5ths are ideal when playing these rhythms. They are very powerful yet harmonically neutral. They re also known as power chords in Western music. For example, for Baladi, probably the most common Arabic rhythm, use a lower E 5th for the beginning two 8th notes, followed by a higher E 5th for the answering two 16th notes + 8th note (non-music-readers, don t worry, I ll be demoing all these rhythms by ear during our session!) You can also incorporate these rhythms into improvs by playing a low 5th for the dum and answering with any notes in the mode for the teks I ll show you how! Besides playing fixed rhythms, you can of course go free rhythm, which is very soothing and natural: For free rhythm, following your breath is a wonderful way to go for improv, or by languid phrases if it s a fixed song you re playing. Let s try some examples

10 10 SONGS I d love to share these Middle Eastern-style songs with you. They re perfect for healing music contexts. Ahava ( Love ) by Bon Singer, representing Jewish music Harmony by Neema Hekmat, representing Persian music Hijaz Ilahi ( Song of praise in the Hijaz mode ), a traditional Sufi piece, representing Turkish, Arabic and Persian music and one more, I can t help myself: (Turkish Jewish) music Durme ( Sleep ), representing Sephardic These are all non-controversial, and fit perfectly into healing music contexts. Consider how you may ornament these songs, improvise on them, re-harmonize them. These ideas are also ones we can follow up with in a later webinar together. ~*~*~*~ ENJOY! Do get in contact diana@dianarowan.com if you have any questions and/or comments. I d love to hear what results you get from these Middle Eastern music ideas! Looking forward to next time! Diana BrightKnowledgeGuild.com