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G♭ in-sen Scale — Guitar Fretboard Visualization

Low E string: Fb, Gb, Abb, Cb, Db, Fb at frets 0, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12

A string: Cb, Db, Fb, Gb, Abb at frets 2, 4, 7, 9, 10

D string: Fb, Gb, Abb, Cb, Db at frets 2, 4, 5, 9, 11

G string: Abb, Cb, Db, Fb, Gb, Abb at frets 0, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12

B string: Cb, Db, Fb, Gb, Abb, Cb at frets 0, 2, 5, 7, 8, 12

High E string: Fb, Gb, Abb, Cb, Db, Fb at frets 0, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12

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Gb 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:

G♭

I

A𝄫

bII

C♭

IV

D♭

V

F♭

bVII

Same notes, different mode

Gb 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.

Db locrian pentatonicFb flat three pentatonic

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

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

How to play G♭ in-sen on guitar

Four open strings fall in this key, none of them a root or a fifth, so they work as passing colour and not as a pedal. Open B supplies the fourth. Lowest root sits at fret 2 on the low E, matched by the high E at the same fret and by the 4th on the D string. Capo fret 2 and the whole thing reads as E in-sen, letting you reuse open-position shapes wholesale.

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