World Music Scales

Pick a root note from the dropdown — that becomes both the tonic of every scale and the starting fret on the low E string. Switch to whichever category interests you (Middle Eastern, Indian, East Asian, African, Spanish, Eastern European, Southeast Asian) and click Play Scale on any card. The scale plays as a three-notes-per-string ascending pattern, starting from your chosen root on the low E string and climbing across all six strings. Pentatonic scales automatically use two notes per string instead, since they don't have enough notes for three-per-string.

Lefty Mode mirrors every fretboard diagram horizontally so left-handed players can read it as if looking at their own guitar — the nut ends up on the right, fret 12 on the left. Marky Mode color-codes the scale-degree dots so each interval (root, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) has its own color across all the diagrams. The two modes are independent and can be combined — turn on both for a mirrored color-coded chart.

Reducing world music to twelve-tone equal temperament collapses some scales that are culturally distinct but share the same pitch set in Western notation. Phrygian Dominant is called Hijaz in Arabic music, Freygish in Klezmer, and Spanish Phrygian in flamenco — same notes, different cultural homes. The tool lists each scale once in its most defining cultural context and uses cross-reference cards in the other sections so the connection isn't lost.

Try the Quick Start ten from the companion poster: Phrygian Dominant, Double Harmonic Major, Hungarian Minor, Hirajoshi, Yo Scale, Blues Scale, Kalyan-style, Pelog Approximation, Spanish 8-Tone, Bhairavi-style. Play each one over a drone (a sustained low root note) or a single repeating vamp on the tonic chord — the harmonic context is what makes a scale's character audible.

Yes, and that's most of the reason to learn them. Phrygian Dominant fits any dominant 7th chord — try it over a V7 in a minor key for instant flamenco or metal flavor. Hungarian Minor works over harmonic-minor i chords. Lydian Dominant (Acoustic Scale) sits on top of a 7♯11 chord. The Quick Start scales were picked specifically because they map cleanly onto common Western harmony.

Several of them are Western modes by another name. Yaman / Kalyan-style is Lydian, Kafi-style is Dorian, Bhairavi-style is Phrygian, Charukeshi-style is Mixolydian ♭6. The interesting ones are the scales that don't fit a Western mode label cleanly — Double Harmonic Major and Hungarian Minor with their pair of augmented 2nds, Persian with its ♭5 alongside major 3rd, the Japanese pentatonics with their non-diatonic intervals. Those are where the cultural sounds live.

Because that's where most guitarists naturally think about a scale's tonic — the low E string position dictates the rest of the shape going up the neck. The dropdown lets you slide the root to any of the twelve chromatic notes, so root C puts the starting note at fret 8, root E at fret 0 (open string), root B♭ at fret 6, and so on. The full three-notes-per-string shape then extends up from there across all six strings.

Yes to both. The tool is part of the Guitar Lick Lab toolkit — a free set of music tools built by Music With Marky. The companion poster (PNG, print-ready) is free to download from the button at the top of the page. Useful as a wall reference, a lesson handout, or just a starting point for picking your next scale to explore.