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Chord & Fret

Locrian ♮2 (F)

Think of it as Locrian 'repaired': it is the 6th mode of the melodic minor, and the one difference from plain Locrian is the major 2nd, which removes the roughness of the step right above the tonic — the home note. It stays unstable, since the diminished 5th is still there, but it becomes easier to sing. In jazz it is the preferred scale over half-diminished chords, the m7(b5): in the minor ii–V, the typical cadence setup in minor keys, that smoother second usually works better than the diatonic Locrian one.

Example: F – G – Ab – Bb – Cb – Db – EbFormula: 1 – 2 – b3 – 4 – b5 – b6 – b7

In the formula, the numbers are degrees — positions counted in the reference major scale; "b" lowers a half step and "#" raises one.

Family: Melodic (jazz) minor and its modes.

The jazz-minor modes are central to jazz and sophisticated harmony. The #2/b3/#5 spelling is functional: enharmonically some notes sound the same, but the notation marks the tension they represent.

Chords in the harmonic field

These are the seven chords born from this scale — one built on each of its notes. Put another way: the set of chords that sounds naturally "inside" the scale. See the harmonic field of every key →

Fm7b5Gm7b5Abm(maj7)Bbm7Cbmaj7#5Db7Eb7

The same scale on all four instruments

Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 6 strings, frets 0–4.123412b34b5b6b712b34b5b5b6b712b3
Guitar
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 6 strings, frets 0–4.123412b34b5b6b712b34b5b5b6b712b3
Electric guitar
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 4 strings, frets 0–4.1234b712b34b5b5b6b7b71
Cavaquinho
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 4 strings, frets 0–4.12342b34b5b6b712b34b5b6
Ukulele

In the diagrams, each dot carries its scale degree — 1 is the tonic, highlighted.

What you see above is one box of Locrian ♮2 per instrument; the full map lives in the app. In Chord & Fret, you press play and watch each note light up on the diagram the instant it sounds; switch the dot labels between degrees, note names and fingers; and run it up, down or in a full round trip. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. Open in Chord & Fret →

See the full scales guide →