E Locrian Scale on Oud

Play the E Locrian scale on Oud 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 5 of Oud's open courses fall inside E Locrian — C (the flat 6th), F (the flat 2nd), A (the 4th), D (the flat 7th), G (the flat 3rd) — though E itself has to be stopped. Open, the courses cover C2 to C4.

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.

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