Bb Neapolitan Major Scale

What is the Bb Neapolitan Major Scale?

The Neapolitan major scale is a major scale with a lowered 2nd degree (♭2), creating a lush but unsettling sound that's been used in classical composition since the Baroque era. The contrast between the bright major tonality and the dark ♭2 makes it one of the most unusual major-type scales available. Here's how the Bb Neapolitan Major Scale lays out on the fretboard. This scale is enharmonically equivalent to A# Neapolitan Major.

Notes and Positions

Minor scale with a lowered 2nd and natural 6th and 7th; tense, dramatic, and brighter than Neapolitan minor. On guitar, you can treat this as both a lead vocabulary and a way to see chord tones inside common shapes. Start with one box, then connect it to the nearest root on the next string set. In the key of Bb, the notes are: Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F, G, A.

How to Use It

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

Practice in small fragments (3-4 notes) and connect them across adjacent positions. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.