B Locrian Scale on Jacob Collier 5-String

Play the B Locrian scale on Jacob Collier 5-String with fretboard diagrams that map the pattern across the neck. The Locrian scale has 7 notes per octave and belongs to the modes family.

All 3 of Jacob Collier 5-String's open strings fall inside B Locrian — D (the flat 3rd), A (the flat 7th), E (the 4th) — though B itself has to be stopped. Open, the strings cover D2 to D4.

The most dissonant, unstable mode — the tonic chord is diminished (b5), making a true Locrian tonal center rare. Used for color and passing harmony.

Heard in: Metal riffs, jazz (half-diminished ø7 chords in ii°7 – V – i), horror and tension film scores.

Jacob Collier 5-String is tuned D–A–E–A–D, with 15 frets to work with. This 5-string is tuned D-A-E-A-D (low to high), a symmetric tuning that mirrors around the middle E string — standard guitar shapes do NOT transfer, so every voicing here is built for this tuning.

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 B Locrian scale to the chords it harmonizes and to progressions in the key of B 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.