Lively, firm, energetic — a Hicaz colour built over a Rast foundation.
Nikrîz makam sets a Hicaz colour over a Rast foundation: a Nikrîz pentachord on the karar Rast — a whole tone, then a Hicaz tetrachord — plus a Rast tetrachord on Neva. It is lively and firm, and often used for dance music.
From perde Rast, the Nikrîz 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, Nevâ, Hüseynî, Evc, 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.
Nikrîz makam is assembled from the Nikrîz pentachord below and the Rast 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 (ascending).
Nikrîz is ascending, leaning on the güçlü Neva. The augmented second appears between the third and fourth degrees — one step higher in the scale than in Hicaz — so the 'eastern' drama arrives a little later in the climb.
A whole tone off the final, then the Hicaz augmented second — bright at the bottom, 'eastern' in the middle.
Lively, firm, energetic — a Hicaz colour built over a Rast foundation.
Heard in: longas and dance tunes.
Makams from the same family — they share material and are told apart by seyir and güçlü:
Nikrîz makam sets a Hicaz colour over a Rast foundation: a Nikrîz pentachord on the karar Rast — a whole tone, then a Hicaz tetrachord — plus a Rast tetrachord on Neva. It is lively and firm, and often used for dance music.
In the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system the koma steps are 9 + 5 + 12 + 5 + 9 + 8 + 5 — 53 koma in all, one full octave. Named: T – S – A – S – T – K – S.
Nikrîz makam resolves on perde Rast; its secondary centre of gravity (güçlü) is perde Nevâ. Its seyir (melodic path) is ascending.
A whole tone off the final, then the Hicaz augmented second — bright at the bottom, 'eastern' in the middle.
Nikrîz is grouped here under "Built on Rast", and shares material with Rast, Nihâvend, Sûzinâk, Mâhur, 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.