About the A Locrian Major scale
A Locrian Major is used for jazz solos and dissonant, unsettled passages. Think of it as a scale with a major third but a flat fifth, unstable and strange.
Its notes are A, B, C♯, D, E♭, F, and G. The formula is W W H H W W W. It is the fourth mode of E♭ Leading Whole Tone.
An unfretted guitar already sounds A, D, G, and B from A Locrian Major. On guitar, the deepest A rings from the open A string.
Positions
Playable shapes for this scale up the neck. Tap any note to hear it.
CAGED
Five shapes, each anchored to a chord form you already know, the pop and rock default that ties your scales to your chords. The outlined notes are that chord, so you can see the C, A, G, E, and D shapes inside the scale.
3NPS
3NPS stands for 3 notes per string. It lays the scale out in seven even shapes for rock and metal lead, and favors speed because the picking pattern stays consistent across every string.
7-position system
7 four-fret boxes, one per scale degree, each a single hand position with almost no shifting. The jazz and classical way, from William Leavitt's Berklee method.
Notes and intervals
| 1 | AA | Root |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | BB | Major 2nd |
| 3 | C#C♯ | Major 3rd |
| 4 | DD | Perfect 4th |
| 5 | EbE♭ | Diminished 5th |
| 6 | FF | Minor 6th |
| 7 | GG | Minor 7th |
| Steps | W W H H W W W |
|---|---|
| Semitones | 2-2-1-1-2-2-2 |
| Degrees | 1 2 3 4 ♭5 ♭6 ♭7 |
Shapes
Chromatic
Circle of Fifths
Related scales
Locrian Major in other keys
Modes
The same notes, starting on a different note.
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