And now for some Ethiopian scales

I went down the Mulatu Astatke rabbithole and ended up making an app

My first introduction to Ethiopian jazz, like many others, was through Mulatu Astatke. And my first introduction to Astatke was through Jim Jarmusch’s absolutely fantastic Broken Flowers. If you haven’t watched the film, drop everything and watch it. Bill Murray plays a loner who goes on a road trip to revisit his old flames and investigate a mysterious letter. His friend makes him a mixtape CD that includes Mulatu Astatke.

That soundtrack was my own deep dive into the noir-ish, pentatonic world of Ethiopian jazz. Like Bill Murray’s journey in the film, I found myself pulled into an exploration of Ethiopian music.

There’s already a wealth of material online about the origins of this genre, but here’s what I gathered: Ethiopian music is built on a unique system of five-note (pentatonic) scales called qenet (sometimes spelled kignit). Unlike Western music’s reliance on fixed tuning, qenet scales thrive on flexible intonation and oral tradition, producing an ancient, haunting sound that immediately draws you in.

Some of the most popular and easily recognizable qenet are Tizita, Bati, Ambassel, and Anchihoye (often included in the “big four”). You’ll also encounter variants like Yematabbelaw, but the core four are the most widely referenced.

I even made an app called FrEthio (Replit ftw!) explaining these scales specifically for the guitar. You can use this as a practice tool if you’d so like. You can change keys, and check out the derivative chords form the scales and listen to the ascending and descending scales.

Here it is (Use on desktop, the audio may not work in all phones):

https://frethio.replit.app/

Good luck on your journey.