C Hirajoshi Scale

What is the C Hirajoshi Scale?

The Hirajoshi scale is a five-note scale from Japanese traditional music with a haunting, otherworldly quality that immediately evokes Eastern atmosphere. Its distinctive pattern of a major 2nd, minor 2nd, major 3rd, and minor 2nd creates wide leaps and tight clusters that sound unlike anything in Western tonality. Here's how the C Hirajoshi Scale lays out on the fretboard.

Notes and Positions

Japanese pentatonic with hollow minor mood. On bass, the fretboard view helps you visualize where the important tones sit for building lines across positions. Use a finger-per-fret approach first, then add shifts only when the line needs a wider range. In the key of C, the notes are: C, D, Eb, G, Ab.

How to Use It

You'll often hear it in Film, Ambient, and Metal. A good way to internalize the sound is to sing the root, then sing a few scale degrees before you play them.

Start with the root on beat 1, add the 5th on beat 3, then work the other scale tones in as passing notes. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.