C# Mixolydian Scale on Cavaquinho

Play the C# Mixolydian scale on Cavaquinho with fretboard diagrams that map the pattern across the neck. The Mixolydian scale has 7 notes per octave and belongs to the modes family.

1 of Cavaquinho's 3 open strings belongs to C# Mixolydian: B (the flat 7th). The D and G strings fall outside it, and C# is not available open. Open, the strings cover D4 to D5.

Major with a flatted 7th (b7) — bright and bluesy. The dominant chord turned into a tonal center with a rock/folk edge.

Heard in: "Sweet Home Chicago", "Norwegian Wood" (Beatles), Celtic and folk music — anywhere a major sound needs a darker, looser edge.

Cavaquinho is tuned D–G–B–D, with 15 frets to work with. Voicings are computed for this tuning by the shared voicing generator, not borrowed from another instrument; traditional technique may still use idiomatic shapes not charted here.

Each position shows the scale notes and their intervals from the root so you can connect the shape to its sound, hear it with audio playback, and practice it in any register. Movable patterns let you transpose the same fingering to other keys once it is learned.

Once a position is under your fingers, link the C# Mixolydian scale to the chords it harmonizes and to progressions in the key of C# to start improvising and writing with it. Working a scale alongside its chords is the fastest way to make it stick and to hear how it colors a progression.