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Chord & Fret
Instrument
GuitarElectric guitarCavaquinhoUkulele

Persian (C)

A close cousin of the double harmonic: it keeps the b2 and both step-and-a-half leaps, but trades the perfect 5th for a lowered one — the b5, which pulls the floor out from under the scale and leaves everything more unstable. The sound is dense and full of friction, with no obvious resting point. 'Persian' is a Western-catalog name — in practice, a historical label that doesn't truly represent the music of Iran. It shows up more in composition and analysis than in everyday repertoire; as a color, it can serve major chords with a major 7th and a raised 5th.

Example: C – Db – E – F – Gb – Ab – BFormula: 1 – b2 – 3 – 4 – b5 – b6 – 7

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

Family: Synthetic and specialized scales.

They appear in specific repertoires — concert music, film scores, modern jazz, regional traditions.

The same scale on all four instruments

Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 6 strings, frets 0–4.123434b5b671b234b5b6771b234b5b6
Guitar
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 6 strings, frets 0–4.123434b5b671b234b5b6771b234b5b6
Electric guitar
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 4 strings, frets 0–4.123434b5b6771b234b5
Cavaquinho
Scale diagramHorizontal fretboard with 4 strings, frets 0–4.1234b671b2334b5b671b2
Ukulele

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

One box per instrument is just the doorway into Persian. In Chord & Fret, you hear the scale in each of the four instruments' own voices; switch the dot labels between degrees, note names and fingers; and choose to start from the tonic or play the full box. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. Open in Chord & Fret →

See the full scales guide →