The Locrian Mode (guide and dicussion)

[jar546]

Thanks, I will keep this in the back of my head with everything else I probably don't need.

[Phil W]

Well if you don't need it just leave it in the book and practise it as an exercise. If you like it or need it you will remember it.

[Phil W]

This apparently has some enigmatic mode at the end . . .

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU9YrEAsGa8

 

though I didn't hang around to check.

 

 

[jeremy c]

Phil, give us some examples of how to use the Ambiguous Mode on a Demolished Ninth Chord.

[Phil W]

Actually I thought Satriani was using the Soporific Mode there but I didn't want to appear rude!

 

The Ambiguous mode is great when you don't know the changes too well.

[Jason G]

I noticed what I can only assume to be a typo in the OP, as all the other info is spot on:

 

You can also conceptualise it as 1, 2 , b3. 4, b5, b6, b7

Should be a b2 in there!

 

The jazz standard "Inner Urge" by Joe Henderson opens with 4 measures of F#minor7b5 and a melody that accents the b5.

 

One of the main riffs in the song "Frayed Ends of Sanity" by Metallica (from "And Justice for All") accents the b2, b3, and b5 from the locrian mode.

 

|----------------|----------------|
|----------------|----------------|
|--------1-------|1---------------|
|0-0-0-0---0---0-|------0-3-0-0-1-|

 

Cheers!

[jeremy c]

A locrian scale without a b2 is also a normally used jazz scale.

 

It sometimes is called a "locrian #2" scale and it is a mode of the melodic minor scale.

 

btw, since jazzers don't use the descending form when using the melodic minor scale, they often call the scale they are using, "jazz minor".

 

I say, play the music first and then write the theory book to describe what you have done.

[Phil W]

IV I

 

Yes, locrian #2 is a neat scale.

You hear it used quite a lot since the early 60s in jazz alongside other melodic minor modes (more likely actually, as Jeremy describes, someone played something that sounded good that someone as analysed later as belonging to a particular scale).

 

Pre 60s jazzers are often more likely to play something that could be analysed as the regular locrian over m7b5 chords. It's fun to mix and match.

 

Modes of the melodic minor and chords built on those modes are more and more frequently used since the early 60s.

[Phil W]

I noticed what I can only assume to be a typo in the OP, as all the other info is spot on:

 

You can also conceptualise it as 1, 2 , b3. 4, b5, b6, b7

Should be a b2 in there!

 

Yes you're right there, since at that point in the post I was describing a normal locrian mode. I went on to contrast it with the locrian#2 in the same post. It was a typo but it's too late to edit it now.

 

Moderator!

 

Thanks Tom!

 

Tom Capasso has kindly edited the original post.

[jar546]

One of the main riffs in the song "Frayed Ends of Sanity" by Metallica (from "And Justice for All") accents the b2, b3, and b5 from the locrian mode.

 

And they probably never knew it or still have any clue to this day

[CuttyShark]

I don't completly understand it but I know that our guitar player writes all most all of his riffs from the locrian mode. He told me he really likes the tension from it. you can listen to some of the recordings we have up at www.myspace.com/cylinderband it's hard rock just to warn you. and it's live stuff. we are in the studio right now. check it out and see if it sounds locrian if you want. -Mike

[Phil W]

I feel the Lydian thread coming on . . . or maybe given the other scales and modes thread I should do Mixolydian first?

 

Any requests?

 

(My cover bar band always get requests like that

- "Play something Mixolydian!"

[Phil W]

I'll take it no-one's interested then - or they're busy digesting this stuff. I don't blame you, sometimes theory's best taken on a question by question basis as the context arises.

[jar546]

I forgot about this thread Phil, sorry. Please go ahead with the Lydian. I need to further broaden my horizons.