Hijaz Scale Positions on the Fretboard

aka Phrygian Dominant Mode

Intro.

This scale has been always a dominant scale (Maqam) in the music of the Middle East. It has been used in many countries, For example Egypt, Arabian Peninsula, Persia (Iran), Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Iraq and others. I am calling it Arabic/Egyptian here because this is where I am from but that does not mean it’s exclusively Arabian. It all depends on what kind of music you play with it.

Scale Positions.

Here are a few positions to play the Arabic scale Hijaz on your guitar. Those are the most used positions by me, once I got these inside my brain and eyes it became easy to connect with other positions up or down the entire fretboard.

You will see all the melodies included in the sample part of the video played on these positions. The backing Drone is in E.

You can play this scale along the chord E Major. You can use the audio file below these neck diagrams.

Even though this scale sounds kind of exotic and somehow sad but it’s considered a major scale and that adds to the mystery/charm of this scale.

Later we will explore the chords used on each step of this scale (Harmonized chord scale)