Chord Colors

C Chinese scale

357912

About the C Chinese scale

C Chinese is used for Chinese-flavored and cinematic melodies. Think of it as a bright five-note scale with a raised fourth and a major seventh.

Its notes are C, E, F, G, and B. The formula is 4 semitones W H 4 semitones H.

Also called Amritavarshini.

This scale shares E, G, and B with the guitar's open strings. Down at the 3rd fret of the A string lies the lowest C a guitar can play.

Positions

Playable shapes for this scale up the neck. Tap any note to hear it.

Pentatonic boxes

The five shapes blues and rock are built on, the first scale most guitarists ever solo with, one box per note up the neck.

Box 1open
Box 2fr 2
Box 3fr 3
Box 4fr 7
Box 5fr 8

Notes and intervals

1CCRoot
2EEMajor 3rd
3F#F♯Augmented 4th
4GGPerfect 5th
5BBMajor 7th
Steps4 semitones W H 4 semitones H
Semitones4-2-1-4-1
Degrees1 3 4 5 7

Shapes

Chromatic

CC♯D♭DD♯E♭EFF♯G♭GG♯A♭AA♯B♭B

Circle of Fifths

CGDAEBF♯G♭C♯D♭G♯A♭D♯E♭A♯B♭F

Related scales

Chinese in other keys

Modes

The same notes, starting on a different note.

Embed this scale

Paste the snippet into a lesson page, a blog or a forum post. The card links back here.

C Chinese scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
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