Hungarian minor scale

{{Short description|Type of musical scale}}

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c4 d es fis g aes b c2

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|width=300|caption=The Hungarian minor scale on C, ascendingKahan, Sylvia (2009). In Search of New Scales, p. 39. {{ISBN|978-1-58046-305-8}}. Cites Liszt. Des Bohémians, p. 301.}}

The Hungarian minor scale,Christiansen, Mike (2000). Guitar Scale Dictionary, p. 14. {{ISBN|978-0-7866-5222-8}}.Stetina, Troy (2007). Fretboard Mastery, p. 126. {{ISBN|978-0-7935-9789-5}}.Kent Cleland, Mary Dobrea-Grindahl (2010). Developing Musicianship Through Aural Skills, p. 495. {{ISBN|978-0-415-80244-4}}Carlos Agon, Emmanuel Amiot, Moreno Andreatta, Gérard Assayag, Jean Bresson, John Manderau; eds. (2011). Mathematics and Computation in Music, p. 89. {{ISBN|978-3-642-21589-6}}. "'gypsy'[sic] (or 'Hungarian minor') scale."Christiansen, Mike (2003). Complete Guitar Scale Dictionary, p. 16. {{ISBN|978-0-7866-6994-3}}. double harmonic minor scale,Podolsky, Joshua Craig (2010). Advanced Lead Guitar Concepts, p. 111. {{ISBN|978-0-7866-8236-2}}. Also "Gypsy scale". or Gypsy minor scaleHanson, Paul and Stang, Aaron (1996). Shred Guitar, p. 114. {{ISBN|978-1-57623-604-8}}. is a type of combined musical scale. It is the same as the harmonic minor scale, except that it has a raised fourth scale degree to introduce an additional gap, or augmented second. It is a symmetrical scale with a slightly ambiguous tonal centre, due to the many half steps.

Its step pattern is W, H, +, H, H, +, H, where W indicates a whole step, H indicates a half step, and + indicates an augmented second (three half steps, enharmonically equivalent to a minor third but functionally distinct). In intervallic terms, it would be described as: 1 2 {{music|b}}3 {{music|#}}4 5 {{music|b}}6 7.

The scale contains two augmented seconds, one in each tetrachord.Kahan, Sylvia (2009). In Search of New Scales, p. 39. {{ISBN|978-1-58046-305-8}}. Cites Liszt. Des Bohémians, p. 301. It also contains an augmented fourth between the first and fourth degree.

This scale is one of the few perfectly balanced seven-note subsets of the equally tempered chromatic scale: when its pitches are represented as points in a circle whose full circumference represents an octave, their average position (or "centre of mass") is the centre of the circle.Milne, A. J., Bulger, D., Herff, S. A. Sethares, W. A. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278683682_Perfect_balance_A_novel_principle_for_the_construction_of_musical_scales_and_meters?_sg=SqdNvMLVOrjHe9z858BVQs5VXKY-Dy-TNN-5wBG92eNSkCRriFQJ-0jRlP3OcG71W6H4kgA2jknfYZ_S0vDhbWhIRel6tX2hzirp-UXt.F6bhPgtoMxGjJM1s_Y2cLifvpNjoKHD0zP6UKDqb59-t4BJRulKdqjBmy5Xj8sA8MTXZLrCpXClvml7S-2LmQA "Perfect balance: A novel principle for the construction of musical scales and meters"], Mathematics and Computation in Music (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9110, pp. 97–108) Heidelberg: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-20603-5 {{ISBN|978-3-319-20602-8}}

The scale may be used with minor or m+7 chords. See: chord-scale system. Chords that may be derived from the B Hungarian minor scale are Bm(maj7), C{{music|#}}7{{music|b}}5, Dmaj7{{music|#}}5, E{{music|#}}6sus2{{music|b}}5, F{{music|#}}maj7, Gmaj7, G7, A{{music|#}}m6 and more.

This scale is obtainable from the double harmonic scale by starting from the fourth degree of that scale, so the C Hungarian minor scale is equivalent to the G double harmonic scale.

In Indian classical Carnatic music, Hungarian minor scale corresponds to Simhendramadhyamam, while the Gypsy variant corresponds to Shanmukhapriya.

The Turkish makam equivalent of this scale is Neveser.{{Cite web |title=NEVESER |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/neveser |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}}

This scale is sometimes also referred to as "Gypsy Run", or alternatively "Egyptian Minor Scale", as mentioned by Miles Davis who describes it in his autobiography as "something that I'd learned at Juilliard".{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Miles|url=https://archive.org/details/milesautobiograp0000davi/page/64|title=Miles, the Autobiography|last2=Troupe|first2=Quincy|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1990|isbn=0-671-72582-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/milesautobiograp0000davi/page/64 64]}}

File:Gypsy Minor Scale.png]]

An alternative (and less common) version is the asymmetric Aeolian ♯4 scale, the only difference with the Hungarian minor scale being that the 7th degree of the scale is not raised.{{Citation|last=Kadmon, Adam.|title=The guitar grimoire.|date=2002|publisher=Carl Fischer|isbn=0-8258-4907-1|oclc=613326594}}{{Cite book|last=Celentano, Dave.|title=Monster scales and modes : a complete compilation of scales, modes, exotic scales, and theory|date=1992|publisher=Centerstream|isbn=0-931759-59-5|oclc=28615218}} This form of the scale can also be used in the fourth mode and would then be referred to as the Neapolitan scale.