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D♯ Spanish Heptatonic scale

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About the D sharp Spanish Heptatonic scale

D sharp Spanish Heptatonic is used for flamenco and Spanish-flavored music. Think of it as the Spanish gypsy scale, a phrygian dominant filled out to eight notes. It is D Bebop Locrian with the fourth lowered.

Its notes are D, E, F, G, G, A, B, and C. The formula is H W H H W H W W. It is the third mode of B Bebop Major.

Also called Flamenco Scale and Spanish Eight-Tone.

An unfretted guitar already sounds E, G, and B from this scale. The lowest D on a standard-tuned guitar sits at the 6th fret of the A string. Placed at the first fret, a capo lets D Spanish Heptatonic be played with D-shape fingerings.

Positions

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

8-position system

8 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.

Position 1open
Position 2fr 2
Position 3fr 3
Position 4fr 4
Position 5fr 6
Position 6fr 7
Position 7fr 9
Position 8fr 11

Notes and intervals

1D#D♯Root
2EEMinor 2nd
3F#F♯Minor 3rd
4GGMajor 3rd
5G#G♯Perfect 4th
6A#A♯Perfect 5th
7BBMinor 6th
8C#C♯Minor 7th
StepsH W H H W H W W
Semitones1-2-1-1-2-1-2-2
Degrees1 2 3 3 4 5 6 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

Spanish Heptatonic 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.

Eb Spanish Heptatonic scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
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