Locrian Dominant

A Locrian scale that stopped being minor

Locrian from C is C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭, the darkest of the seven diatonic modes and the one built on a diminished fifth. Raising the third to E changes the whole function: the tonic chord becomes C E G♭ B♭, a dominant seventh with a flattened fifth, and the mode turns from something unusable into something with a job.

That single degree is why the name pairs two words that look contradictory. Locrian supplies the flat second, flat fifth and flat sixth; dominant supplies the major third over a flat seventh.

The chord it exists for

C7♭5 is the home chord, and the remaining notes fill it out as altered tensions: D♭ as the flat ninth and A♭ as the flat thirteenth. What the scale does not contain is a natural fifth or a sharp ninth, and those two absences are what separate it from every neighbouring option.

The perfect fourth is present, which is unusual for a dominant scale. F sits a half step above the major third and behaves as a suspension rather than an avoid note, so lines that would sound wrong over an altered chord work here.

Searching the name turns up a track, not a scale

Typing the name into a search box returns music files before it returns theory. A track carrying exactly this title circulates in slowed and reverbed edits, and the phrases around it — download, mp3, one hour, sped up — outnumber the musical ones in every language checked.

Nothing about that release has to do with the fifth mode of the Neapolitan minor. Adding the word scale to a search is enough to separate the two, and that longer phrase is also the one musicians actually use.

Against the altered scale

The altered scale is the usual choice over a dominant that wants to resolve: C D♭ E♭ E G♭ A♭ B♭. Six of its seven notes appear here too, and the difference comes down to one substitution — the altered scale carries a sharp ninth where this mode carries a perfect fourth.

Choosing between them is therefore a decision about that one degree. A line leaning on the fourth stays inside this mode; a line leaning on the sharp ninth belongs to the altered scale, and mixing them removes the character of both.

Against Phrygian dominant

Phrygian dominant is the far more common relative: C D♭ E F G A♭ B♭. Only the fifth degree separates the two, G against G♭, and everything else — including the augmented second between the flat second and the major third — is shared.

Practically the flat fifth is the whole point. Phrygian dominant sits on an ordinary dominant chord and sounds settled; flattening the fifth removes that stability and produces a chord that cannot rest, which is why this mode appears at moments of maximum tension rather than as a colour.

Frequently asked questions