Modes & Scales
B Locrian
The darkest, most unstable mode of all.
B C D E F G A · 1 ♭2 ♭3 4 ♭5 ♭6 ♭7
Locrian is the seventh mode — the only one with a flat 5th. It is so unstable it barely feels like a key, which is exactly what makes it useful.
Every 3-notes-per-string position
The idea
Minor with a ♭2 and a ♭5
B Locrian is B C D E F G A. It has the ♭3 (D) of a minor scale, plus a ♭2 (C) like Phrygian and a ♭5 (F) that no other common mode has.
- The ♭3 (D) makes it minor.
- The ♭2 (C) darkens it like Phrygian.
- The ♭5 (F) is unique — it dissolves the sense of a stable root.
The color tone
The ♭5
The ♭5 (F) is the sound of Locrian. Because the root has no perfect 5th above it, the scale never feels settled — it is all tension.
- The ♭5 (F) is the defining, unstable tone.
- It sits over a half-diminished (m7♭5) chord.
- Use it as color, not as a home key.
Use it
Where Locrian lives
Locrian appears over the viim7♭5 chord in a major key, and in metal for maximum darkness. It is a color to pass through, rarely to rest on.
- Use it over a m7♭5 (half-diminished) chord.
- The vii of a major key — Bm7♭5 in C major.
- B Locrian = C major from B (the 7th mode).
The one mode with a flat 5th, Locrian is pure instability — a color you move through on the way somewhere else.
Practice it in the app
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