Think that Maqam is a scale? Think again!

One of the biggest misconceptions of Maqam. Maqam is NEVER a scale. Here is why:
While all theory books teach maqam as a scale, this is actually very far from how the music actually works.
When I was on my own journey trying to crack the code of maqam, I actually decided to take the advise of the most important theoretician in the history of Arabic music (Abu El Nasr Al Farabi) where he said that theory should follow how music is practiced (not the other way round).
A scale is fixed. It is absolute.
But in reality, when you listen closely to Arabic music you start to hear that a maqam is actually a chain of maqam building blocks.
Sometimes you switch between the sonic lego pieces (depending on what maqam of course as each maqam needs to be studied as a unique case).
Here is my proof using the super famous mowashah Ayohael Saqi. do you hear how it switched ?
Of course this is one example of so many:)
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[@MarianaMasetto]

SO INTERESTING! Thanks so much!

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

my pleasure:)

[@meletisdrimousis2622]

very Good!

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

glad its helpful:)

[@osamaathman229]

so lets say we started on Bayati Re , and you then modulate into Nahawand sol, how do we confirm that we actually have moved to Nahawand sol when the bayat itself is made up of Jins Bayati Re and Jins Nahawand sol , cant we still imagine we still in bayati at the very beginning of the song as you demonstrated rather than saying we started on Bayati moved to Nahawand then Bayati again , because when i tried to modulate into Nahawand Do , or La , it was not making sense , since from previous knowledge acquired i can only modulate from a maqam when i get to it fourth degree , and for our case Bayati re its forth degree is Sol , correct me if i am wrong - we all learning

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

hey @osamaathman29 thanks for your question. In terms of your first question: if it is bayati re (d) How can we confirm that we moved to Nahawand sol (G) ; the answer is a change in interval. to be literal the note si (b) becomes bemol (flat) instead of si half bemol (b half flat) which is rast. the WHOLE chain is maqam bayati. HOWEVER, Arabic music 99% of the time is a shift in specific building blocks vs a shift in the ENTIRE maqam (which is a widespread misconception) . Lastly the most important thing is to know that you can start a maqam from ANY note (la si or literarly anything ) but what will not change is the intervals. I suspect that is what is confusing you ..hope that makes sense and is helpeful ?

[@osamaathman229]

@@MayaYoussefMusic you are absolutely right, but From some previous teacher, I was taught there are originally 2 forms of Bayati Re , one is playing jins Bayati followed by Rast and the other was playing Jins Bayati then followed by jins Nahawand , sourced from Maqam world website by Sami Abu Shumays and he personally shared his own insights with me that you can play a taqsim by either playing Bayati-Rast or Bayati-Nahawand or mix them all at once in a taqsim

[@osamaathman229]

@@MayaYoussefMusic I appreciate your feedback and congrats

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

@@osamaathman229 hi osama , we are in agreement:) you mentioned Nahawand do and La in your earlier comment which got me confused. If you look at this video I have used both Nahawand and Rast in the branch as both are part of Bayati's core structure. In taqsim you always use ALL of the building blocks in maqam core structure. hope thats clear now :)

[@MayaYoussefMusic]

@@osamaathman229 you are welcome and thank you :)