Locrian mode

Locrian is an advanced mode that was not included in the system of the old modes or church modes. It was added in modern times as " completion mode ".

In its scale is a semitone between the first and second and the fourth and fifth stages, the other intervals are whole steps. It can be formed by lowering of the natural minor scale, the 2nd and the 5th level. The Locrian scale is therefore the only mode that contains the fifth tier instead of the pure fifth dissonant diminished fifth ( tritone ).

The key of B Locrian contains the master tones of Western music, which correspond to the white keys keyboard instruments.

Current Music Practice

In music practice, this scale is rarely used. Occasionally they are found in jazz and metal, as well as in the Klezmer music under the name Yshtabach.

In jazz, the Locrian mode is primarily associated with half- diminished sevenths in conjunction, ie chords consisting of root ( 1), minor third (b3 ), diminished fifth (b5 ) and minor seventh (b7 ) ). Such a type of chord can be derived from the Locrian mode ( lokrischer mode: 1, b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, b7, 8) and finds its application eg in a II -VI compound in a minor key.

Harder metal riffs are often in the Locrian mode because the diminished fifth and the small second with respect to the fundamental sound particularly dissonant.

Sample

Scale in C Locrian? / I