Today we know B Locrian mode as all the natural notes of B to B. Let’s see what that looks like on the treble staff…
And now on the piano keyboard highlighted in red…
It’s similar to the C Major scale except it starts and ends on the note B.
Or another way to look at it is that it’s similar to the B minor scale except there are no F sharps or C sharps. Those notes are instead natural.
The steps of the Locrian mode are Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole.
So for example if you started on the note C, then C Locrian would look like this on the treble staff…
On the piano keyboard highlighted in blue…
As you can see, C Locrian looks very similar to a C Minor scale. The difference being that C Locrian also includes D Flat and G Flat.
Locrian Mode is incredibly tense and dissonant mainly because of the flat 5th degree of the scale, so it’s difficult to write music in that is pleasing to the ear. However some songs that include elements from the Locrian Mode are…
Army of Me- by Bjork
Painkiller- by Judas Priest
Juicebox- by The Strokes
Dust to Dust- by John Kirkpatrick