composing a piano piece using specific scale

Question

Hi I was wondering how I would go about composing a piano piece using the tonality of a Hungarian minor scale and what chords I could use that would fit with this. Thanks

Answer 1

The process for creating chords from scales is actually pretty simple. First, write out the notes in the scale and give each note a number, for the A Hungarian Minor Scale this would be:

A_B_C_D#_E_F_G#
1_2_3_4__5_6_7

To get a basic triad chord, you take the 1-3-5 notes. This is a process called "stacking thirds" because the notes are a third apart.

Taking the 1-3-5 notes gives: A-C-E which is an Am chord. You can then add any extensions you want such as the 7th, which would be G#, or the 6th which would be an F, etc.

Then you repeat this process by moving to the next note in the scale and assigning it the number "1".

B_C_D#_E_F_G#_A
1_2_3__4_5_6__7

All the notes are still the same, but we just shuffled them around to give the next note in the scale (the B note) the number "1".

Taking the 1-3-5 notes gives: B-D#-F which is a Bb5 chord. Then as before you can add any extensions, 7th (A note), 6th (G# note), etc. that you want to this chord.

Repeat this process moving to each of the notes and you will have all of the chords which are built from this scale.

Answer 2

You could start out by experimenting with the diatonic triads built from the scale. In cm they would be cm D(b5) Eb(#5) F#dim G Ab bm. For more colour, try four tone chords: cm(maj7) D7(b5) Ebmaj7(#5) F#dim7 Gmaj7 Abmaj7 bm6.