Low E string: F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb at frets 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11
A string: Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab at frets 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11
D string: Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db at frets 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11
G string: Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb at frets 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11
B string: Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb at frets 0, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12
High E string: F, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb at frets 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11
The locrian mode flattens the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th, leaving a diminished chord on the root: the only mode of the major scale with no stable home. That instability is the point. Use it over half-diminished (m7b5) chords in minor ii-V progressions, or in metal where its tritone-against-root tension is a feature rather than a problem.
it consists of these notes and degrees:
i°
bII
biii
iv
bV
bVI
bvii
Characteristic notes: B (b5) and Gb (b2), the flat five and flat two that give locrian its unstable, diminished character.
Same notes, different mode
F locrian 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.
How to play F locrian on guitar
Both E strings carry a root at fret 1, so the whole key sits one fret above open position and every open-position shape you know shifts up by one. Only the open B string belongs to the scale, where it sits as Cb. Box one gives out at fret 5. Six flats in the signature, and a capo at fret 1 turns the grip into E locrian, which lets you borrow fingerings from a far more common key.
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