Bright and grand; carries Çârgâh's plainness but its descending seyir gives it a broader, more spacious feel.
Mâhur is the şed (transposed) form of Çârgâh, carrying the exact same major-scale intervals up to perde Rast instead of perde Çârgâh. It joins a Çârgâh pentachord on the karar to a Çârgâh tetrachord on Neva, resolving on perde Rast (G). Because it shares Çârgâh's plain, bright intervals, it is one of the makams closest to Western ears.
From perde Rast, the Mâhur dizi runs through these degrees across one octave. A degree is labelled with a core perde name where it lands exactly on one, and with its degree number otherwise. The letters are the koma value of each interval: T = tanini (9), K = büyük mücennep (8), S = küçük mücennep (5), B = bakiye (4), A = artık ikili (12). Press play the scale — every perde sounds at its true position in the 53-koma octave, microtonally, not rounded to a piano key.
The dizi lands on these named core perdes: Rast, Dügâh, Çârgâh, Nevâ, Hüseynî, Gerdâniye. The degrees in between carry no core perde name and are shown by number.
Turkish music is written for one reference tuning (Bolâhenk); differently sized instruments transpose it down — Süpürde by a whole tone, Kız by ≈ a fourth, Mansur by ≈ a fifth. The written perdes don't change, only the sounding pitch.
The same seven steps drawn against the core perde lines, so you can see the melodic shape and exactly which degrees sit between the piano keys.
Each dot is a degree's true koma height above the karar. Reddish dots don't sit on a core perde — they fall 'between the keys'. Turkish scores write these with the koma / mücennep accidentals.
Mâhur makam is assembled from the Çârgâh pentachord on Rast below and the Çârgâh tetrachord on Neva above, meeting on one shared perde. What defines the makam is not only the scale but its karar (Rast), its güçlü (Nevâ), and its seyir (descending).
Mâhur has a descending seyir: melodies often open in the upper register, around the octave or the güçlü Neva, then work back down through the Çârgâh pentachord to rest on the karar Rast.
The Western major scale again, like Çârgâh, but heard from the top down and resolving on Rast rather than Çârgâh.
Bright and grand; carries Çârgâh's plainness but its descending seyir gives it a broader, more spacious feel.
Heard in: the Mâhur works of the classical fasıl and şarkı repertoire.
Makams from the same family — they share material and are told apart by seyir and güçlü:
Mâhur is the şed (transposed) form of Çârgâh, carrying the exact same major-scale intervals up to perde Rast instead of perde Çârgâh. It joins a Çârgâh pentachord on the karar to a Çârgâh tetrachord on Neva, resolving on perde Rast (G). Because it shares Çârgâh's plain, bright intervals, it is one of the makams closest to Western ears.
In the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system the koma steps are 9 + 9 + 4 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 4 — 53 koma in all, one full octave. Named: T – T – B – T – T – T – B.
Mâhur makam resolves on perde Rast; its secondary centre of gravity (güçlü) is perde Nevâ. Its seyir (melodic path) is descending.
The Western major scale again, like Çârgâh, but heard from the top down and resolving on Rast rather than Çârgâh.
Mâhur is grouped here under "Built on Rast", and shares material with Rast, Nihâvend, Nikrîz, Sûzinâk, Kürdîlihicazkâr. These are told apart not by their scale but by their seyir and güçlü.
This scale is given in its standard Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek / conservatory form and is checked to close the octave at 53 commas. There is always a small gap between what the theory writes and what a performer plays.
Back to the Turkish Makam tool for all seven çeşni, the perde ruler and the 20 makams; for the history of makam and maqam see the Middle Eastern Music lesson; for Western scales, the Scale Library.