STRINGSCALES

D♭ in-sen Scale — Guitar Fretboard Visualization

Low E string: Gb, Ab, Cb, Db, Ebb at frets 2, 4, 7, 9, 10

A string: Cb, Db, Ebb, Gb, Ab at frets 2, 4, 5, 9, 11

D string: Ebb, Gb, Ab, Cb, Db, Ebb at frets 0, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12

G string: Ab, Cb, Db, Ebb, Gb at frets 1, 4, 6, 7, 11

B string: Cb, Db, Ebb, Gb, Ab, Cb at frets 0, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12

High E string: Gb, Ab, Cb, Db, Ebb at frets 2, 4, 7, 9, 10

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Db 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:

D♭

I

E𝄫

bII

G♭

IV

A♭

V

C♭

bVII

Same notes, different mode

Db 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.

Ab locrian pentatonicCb flat three pentatonic

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

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

How to play D♭ in-sen on guitar

Capo fret 1 and every shape here becomes C in-sen, so the fingerings you already own transfer straight across. Open D and open B belong to this key. Both land as a minor second and a minor seventh over the tonic, so treat them as colour instead of a pedal. Lowest-numbered root here is 2 on the B string, while the lowest-pitched one waits at 9 on the low E.

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