Scales › super-Locrian ♭♭7 (ultralocrian)

super-Locrian ♭♭7 (ultralocrian) scale

diminished Locrian, bb7

7 notes

RC b9Db b3Eb b11Fb b5Gb b13Ab bb7Bbb

guide tones (3rd & 7th — the heart of the sound) avoid (strong clash)

C · Db · Eb · Fb · Gb · Ab · Bbb

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What color?

Super-Locrian whose seventh is doubly lowered (bb7), making it a dim7 sound loaded with b9, b11 and b13. Extreme tension and total instability, to reserve for the most altered dominants resolving to minor.

Origin & history

The seventh and last mode of the harmonic minor (also called super-Locrian ♭♭7). It is more a construction of modern modal theory than a scale of tradition: the darkest of the diminished colors over a tonic.

Which chords to play it on?

Outside the functional consensus: this is an exploration color. Lay it over a vamp or a held chord to tint your improvisation with an unexpected flavor, rather than inside a cadence.

Sibling modes

The super-Locrian ♭♭7 (ultralocrian) scale is one of the modes of the harmonic minor : it shares exactly the same notes as the modes below, but built on a different degree of the parent scale (harmonic minor).

harmonic minor classical minor, augmented second Locrian ♮6 half-diminished with major thirteenth Ionian ♯5 (augmented major) major with augmented fifth Dorian ♯4 (Romanian) Romanian Dorian ♯4 Phrygian dominant (Spanish) Spanish flamenco ♭9 Lydian ♯2 crystalline Lydian ♯2

Try it in a real chart

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