The term Gypsy scale, refers to one of several musical scale

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

s named after their association with Gypsy music.

Hungarian Gypsy scale

The Hungarian Gypsy scale can be made by raising the fourth

Subdominant

In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It is also the note immediately...

 degree of the natural minor scale.

The sequence of steps comprising the Hungarian Gypsy scale is:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A B C D E F G A

-W,H,A, H,H,W,W-, H = Half-Step (Semitone), A=Augmented second

Augmented second

In classical music from Western culture, an augmented second is an interval produced by widening a major second by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from C to D is a major second, two semitones wide, and both the intervals from C to D, and from C to D are augmented seconds, spanning...

)

This scale is one of two known as the Hungarian Gypsy scale

Hungarian gypsy scale

The Hungarian Gypsy Scale is a name given by different authorities to two different scale forms. The more commonly used of these scales is the fourth mode of the Double harmonic scale , it can be found by sharpening the 4th degree of the harmonic minor scale to introduce an additional gap, or...

.

Minor Gypsy scale

The minor Gypsy scale, technically known as the double harmonic scale and popularly called the Spanish Gypsy scale, is a scale that may be played on the (modern) "white keys" of a piano from E to E, except that the G and D are sharpened to the (modern) "black keys" G and D. The Spanish Gypsy scale, which is produced by, e.g., raising the fourth note of the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, can be readily altered to the Neapolitan minor scale by lowering the third, as well as to the Phrygian dominant scale

Phrygian dominant scale

In music, the altered Phrygian scale or Freygish scale , featuring an unusual key signature and a distinctive augmented second interval, is the fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale, the fifth being the dominant...

, also known as the Freygish scale or the "Jewish scale" for its use in Klezmer

Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...

music, by lowering the 7th.

The sequence of steps constituting the Spanish Gypsy Scale is:


1 2  3 4 5 6  7 8

C D E F G A B C

 ^  ^ ^ ^ ^  ^ ^ 

 H  A H W H  A H 


(H = half; W = whole; A = augmented)