Originally Posted by
Robert
What's with the silly names? I don't know, it's all Greek to me!
Apparently, these scale names are based upon the fact that much of the roots of modern musical theory go back to those scary-smart ancient Greeks. AAMOF, Pythagoras, the famous Greek philosopher-mathematician, is generally credited as having recognized that the musical intervals that are most pleasing to the human ear are related as the ratio of small integers. One smart dude, that Pythagoras!! You RAWK, Pyth-man!!
From Wikipedia:
Early Greek treatises on music referred to modes, or scales, which were named after certain of the Ancient Greek subgroups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians), one small region in central Greece (Locris), and certain neighboring (non-Greek) peoples from Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia).
They don't call me the Cliff Clavin of TheFret.Net for nothin'!!