ORIGINS

ETHIOPIAN MUSIC

SCALES 

The Ethiopian music mostly is based in pentatonic scales. It means there are five different tones in the scale. May be you are not musician, but if you have some knowledge you can play the Ethiopian music scales with this lesson.

The main scales used in Ethiopian music are the following:

TIZITA              C D E G A C or the following pattern : tone, tone, 1tone and a half, tone, 1 tone and a half.
This scale name means memory.

AMBASEL        C C# F G G# C or the following pattern: half tone, 2 tone, tone, half tone, 2 tone.
The ambasel scale take its name from a region.

BATI                 C E F G B C or the following pattern: 2 tone, half tone, tone, 2 tone, half tone.
This scale take its name from a city in the Oromia region.

ANCHI HOYE C C# F F# A C or the following pattern: half tone, 2 tone, half tone, 1 tone and a half, 1 tone and a half.

If you have a keyboard or another instrument you can enjoy the scales with Ethiopian flavor.

INSTRUMENTS

Of course, in a country like Ethiopia where there are so many cultures and more than 80 languages, the music instruments are many and my purpose is not to make a complete list about them, I will speak just about the most famous ones.

Masinqo: some times it is described as a one string violin. And in fact the principle is similar as the violin one, it makes the sound with the vibration of the only string. The different notes are performed touching the string with the fingers.







Washint: is the Ethiopian traditional flute. As far as you can see there are six holes, to follow the pattern of the scales, normally is used a different washint for every scale because the distance between the holes is different.

 Kirar: is a kind of lire with five or six strings that can be tuned in different scales with the woods on the top. It can be played with the fingers or with a pick.












I hope you enjoy it!