G Locrian Mode

What is the G Locrian Mode?

Locrian is the seventh and darkest mode of the major scale, with both a ♭2 and a ♭5 that produce a diminished tonic triad — making it inherently unstable and restless. It's rarely used as a tonal center in traditional music, but metal and progressive players lean into that instability for intense, dissonant passages. Here's how the G Locrian Mode lays out on the fretboard.

Notes and Positions

The seventh mode - the darkest diatonic mode with a flat 5th. 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 G, the notes are: G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F.

How to Use It

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

Start by playing one position slowly and saying the note names or degrees out loud. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.