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D flat three pentatonic Scale — Guitar Fretboard Visualization

Low E string: E, F, A, B, D, E at frets 0, 1, 5, 7, 10, 12

A string: A, B, D, E, F, A at frets 0, 2, 5, 7, 8, 12

D string: D, E, F, A, B, D at frets 0, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12

G string: A, B, D, E, F at frets 2, 4, 7, 9, 10

B string: B, D, E, F, A, B at frets 0, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12

High E string: E, F, A, B, D, E at frets 0, 1, 5, 7, 10, 12

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D flat three pentatonic

The flat three pentatonic is better known as the Japanese kumoi scale: root, 2nd, flat 3rd, 5th, 6th. It reads as a major pentatonic with the 3rd darkened, or as a five note slice of dorian, and both hearings are useful. The 2nd and 6th around the minor 3rd give it a bright-dark ambiguity that works from folk melodies to fusion lines.

it consists of these notes and degrees:

D

I

E

II

F

bIII

A

V

B

VI

Same notes, different mode

D flat three pentatonic 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.

E in-senB locrian pentatonic

flat three pentatonic in all 12 keys, with chords and related scales

tip
  • This is the Japanese kumoi sound: major pentatonic shape with the 3rd darkened to b3 (F); play familiar boxes and move one finger.
  • The II to b3 (F) half step... use it as a hammer-on ornament; it is the scale's characteristic inflection.
  • Over a m6 chord on D, all five notes are chord tones or colors: no avoid notes, pure vocabulary.
  • Write phrases ending on the 6th (B) over a minor chord for the bright-sad kumoi cadence.

How to play D flat three pentatonic on guitar

Every note in D flat-three pentatonic is a natural, which means you can name what you play without stopping to think. Open D gives the root, open A the fifth and open B the sixth, which lets a three-string drone sit underneath fretted lines while both E strings add the second. Roots repeat at fret 3, B string, and fret 5, A string. Box one keeps going until fret 14.

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