Phrygian
1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2About Phrygian
C phrygian is C natural minor with a flattened second: C D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭. Four flats, and the D♭ directly above the tonic is what defines it — the semitone that gives the mode its Spanish and Middle Eastern associations.
The note that defines it
C D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭, then C. It is the third mode of A♭ major and shares its four flats. Compare with C natural minor, which has D natural: one semitone separates them.
The D♭ is not a colour note in the way a raised sixth is — it changes the whole gravity of the scale, because the second degree normally supports the tonic and here it presses on it instead.
On the fretboard
Eighth fret with the root on the low E string, or third fret with the root on the A. Neither position uses open strings, which is one reason C phrygian is less common on guitar than the E version.
Alternating the root with the flattened second is the whole idiom, and here that means two fretted notes rather than an open string and one finger. The mode works; it just costs more.
Where it is used
Metal in drop tunings that put C at the bottom, and film scoring where the flattened second supplies unease. Flamenco uses the phrygian dominant instead, which raises the third.
In jazz it appears over a iii chord, though rarely — the D♭ clashes with most voicings, and arrangers who want that sound usually alter the chord rather than the scale.
Related Scales from Diatonic
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