STRINGSCALES

A♭ in-sen Scale — Guitar Fretboard Visualization

Low E string: Gb, Ab, Bbb, Db, Eb at frets 2, 4, 5, 9, 11

A string: Bbb, Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, Bbb at frets 0, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12

D string: Eb, Gb, Ab, Bbb, Db at frets 1, 4, 6, 7, 11

G string: Ab, Bbb, Db, Eb, Gb at frets 1, 2, 6, 8, 11

B string: Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, Bbb at frets 2, 4, 7, 9, 10

High E string: Gb, Ab, Bbb, Db, Eb at frets 2, 4, 5, 9, 11

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Ab in-sen

The in-sen scale is a Japanese pentatonic mixing dark and open colors: root, flat 2nd, 4th, 5th, flat 7th. The flat 2nd supplies the shadow, while the 4th, 5th and flat 7th form the skeleton of a sus chord, so lines resolve into open fourths and fifths. Kenny Kirkland and other jazz players borrowed it for exactly that sus-with-an-edge sound.

it consists of these notes and degrees:

A♭

I

B𝄫

bII

D♭

IV

E♭

V

G♭

bVII

Same notes, different mode

Ab in-sen uses the same notes as the scales below. Start from a different note and you get a new mode built on the very same note set.

Eb locrian pentatonicGb flat three pentatonic

in-sen in all 12 keys, with chords and related scales

tip
  • The dark b2 (A) against an otherwise sus-flavored set (IV, V, b7 (Gb)): open with the half step, then let the 4ths ring.
  • Over a sus7 chord on Ab it behaves like an exotic sus vocabulary; jazz players use exactly this trick.
  • Build riffs in stacked 4ths (b2 (A) to b7 (Gb)... IV to root...); the scale is practically tuned for quartal playing.
  • End phrases on the 5th (Eb) rather than the root for the traditional floating finish.

How to play A♭ in-sen on guitar

Only the open A string sits in this key, and it lands one semitone above the tonic, so it will not hold as a pedal. Root nearest open position is 1 on the G string, then 4 on both E strings. Lowest root is at 4 on the low E, which puts the handover to the next box at 8. Capo fret 1 and it becomes G in-sen.

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