B Phrygian Scale on Oud

Play the B Phrygian scale on Oud with fretboard diagrams that map the pattern across the neck. The Phrygian scale has 7 notes per octave and belongs to the modes family.

4 of Oud's 5 open courses belong to B Phrygian: C (the flat 2nd), A (the flat 7th), D (the flat 3rd), G (the flat 6th). The F string falls outside it, and B is not available open. Open, the courses cover C2 to C4.

Very dark minor with a half-step above the tonic. Spanish, Flamenco, and metal flavor — exotic, tense, and mysterious.

Heard in: Flamenco, metal, dark film scores — Carlos Santana solos, Joe Satriani's "War", Moorish and Andalusian music.

Oud is tuned C–F–A–D–G–C, with 12 frets to work with. Positions are computed for this tuning; traditional technique may use idiomatic voicings not shown 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 B Phrygian 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.