STRINGSCALES

C in-sen Scale — Guitar Fretboard Visualization

Low E string: F, G, Bb, C, Db at frets 1, 3, 6, 8, 9

A string: Bb, C, Db, F, G at frets 1, 3, 4, 8, 10

D string: F, G, Bb, C, Db at frets 3, 5, 8, 10, 11

G string: G, Bb, C, Db, F, G at frets 0, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12

B string: C, Db, F, G, Bb at frets 1, 2, 6, 8, 11

High E string: F, G, Bb, C, Db at frets 1, 3, 6, 8, 9

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C 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:

C

I

D♭

bII

F

IV

G

V

B♭

bVII

Same notes, different mode

C 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.

G locrian pentatonicBb flat three pentatonic

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

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

How to play C in-sen on guitar

Open G sounds the fifth of this key, so it can drone under anything you play above it. Roots land on the B string at the 1st fret, the A string at the 3rd, and both E strings at the 8th. Shift that same grip up 7 semitones and it reads as G locrian pentatonic, meaning one memorised shape serves two tonics. Only one open string belongs here.

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