Intricate and refined; opens with the microtonal colour of perde Segâh and carries Hicaz's passion above.
Segâh makam takes its name from the perde it resolves on — one of the few makams named directly after its karar. It joins a Segâh pentachord on the karar to a Hicaz tetrachord on Evc, giving it a bright opening that turns dramatic as it climbs. It resolves on perde Segâh, a microtonal step that sits between the Western B and C.
From perde Segâh, the Segâh 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: Segâh, Çârgâh, Nevâ, 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.
Segâh makam is assembled from the Segâh pentachord below and the Hicaz tetrachord on Evc above, meeting on one shared perde. What defines the makam is not only the scale but its karar (Segâh), its güçlü (Evc), and its seyir (ascending).
Segâh is an ascending makam. It typically opens near the karar, moves up through the Segâh pentachord, and meets the Hicaz tetrachord's augmented second on the way to the octave, before returning to rest on the karar Segâh.
A scale that opens on a note between the piano keys, then turns dramatic with a Hicaz-style augmented second higher up.
Intricate and refined; opens with the microtonal colour of perde Segâh and carries Hicaz's passion above.
Heard in: the Segâh works of the classical fasıl repertoire.
Makams from the same family — they share material and are told apart by seyir and güçlü:
Segâh makam takes its name from the perde it resolves on — one of the few makams named directly after its karar. It joins a Segâh pentachord on the karar to a Hicaz tetrachord on Evc, giving it a bright opening that turns dramatic as it climbs. It resolves on perde Segâh, a microtonal step that sits between the Western B and C.
In the Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system the koma steps are 5 + 9 + 8 + 9 + 5 + 12 + 5 — 53 koma in all, one full octave. Named: S – T – K – T – S – A – S.
Segâh makam resolves on perde Segâh; its secondary centre of gravity (güçlü) is perde Evc. Its seyir (melodic path) is ascending.
A scale that opens on a note between the piano keys, then turns dramatic with a Hicaz-style augmented second higher up.
Segâh is grouped here under "Resolving on Segâh", and shares material with Hüzzam. 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.