A Locrian, Upright Bass Side

Where A Locrian lies on this reader's fingerboard, and what it is for.

7 notes to the octave, mapped below onto this reader's EADG fingerboard, with every A called out. Those markers are the useful part mid-bar: a chart moves under you, and the thing you need is where the root went — not where the pattern started.

The most dissonant, unstable mode — the tonic chord is diminished (b5), making a true Locrian tonal center rare. Used for color and passing harmony.

Heard in: Metal riffs, jazz (half-diminished ø7 chords in ii°7 – V – i), horror and tension film scores.

The walk from one number to the next has further to travel on this instrument, so the notes it passes through are chosen for the distance as much as for the harmony.

Play it slowly against the audio until the position stops being a position, then take it to a chart counted in A and let the numbers pick their own notes out of it.