D# Locrian Mode for Melody Writers: Home Notes and Restless Ones
Play a D# and then an A, and listen to the gap between them. It sounds hollow and a little sour, like a question nobody intends to answer. That A is the fifth note of D# Locrian, and it sits a half step lower than the comfortable fifth you'd expect. Almost everything strange and shadowy about this mode comes from that one lowered note. The ground under the melody never quite feels solid, and that makes it a fascinating place to write.
The Note That Tilts Everything
Most scales have a fifth, the note five letter names up from the root (the root is the starting note, the one a scale is named after). In most scales the fifth is a "perfect" fifth, a sturdy, open-sounding interval that props up the root like a pillar. An interval is simply the distance between two notes.
In D# Locrian the fifth is A, which makes it a diminished fifth, also called a flat 5th or b5. A half step is the smallest step in Western music, like moving from one piano key to the very next one. The diminished fifth is one half step narrower than a perfect fifth. That interval, also known as the tritone, splits the octave exactly in half, and the ear hears it as unresolved.
Here's the important part for a songwriter. Because the root and its fifth clash, the chord built on D# is a diminished chord: D#dim, spelled D#-F#-A. A melody can circle D# all day, but the harmony underneath never quite settles. Locrian is the only one of the common modes whose home chord is unstable. That restlessness is its personality.
Seven Letters, Seven Notes
The notes of D# Locrian are D#, E, F#, G#, A, B, C#. Each letter from D to C appears exactly once, which is the rule for spelling a seven-note scale. It keeps the notes readable and makes every interval easy to name.
The mode follows this step pattern from the root, where W is a whole step (two half steps) and H is a half step: H - W - W - H - W - W - W.
- D# up a half step lands on E, a natural. On a piano that's the white key right next to D#.
- A whole step up gives F#, then another whole step gives G#.
- A half step brings you to A, the diminished fifth.
- Three whole steps follow: B, C#, and back to D#.
As a formula, that's 1, b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, b7. Nearly every degree is lowered compared with a major scale. Only the root and the perfect 4th (G#) stay put.
A word on spelling, because it can look odd. You might wonder why we don't call this Eb Locrian. It sounds identical, but writing it with flats would take 8 flats in total, including a double flat. D# Locrian needs only sharps and one natural. Both names are correct; this one is simply far kinder to read.
Borrowed From E Major
D# Locrian uses exactly the same notes as E major (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#). The only difference is where you start and where you treat as home. Play the E major scale from its seventh note, D#, to the D# above, and you've played D# Locrian.
That means it shares E major's key signature of 4 sharps. A key signature is the group of sharps or flats written at the start of sheet music: here F#, C#, G# and D#. A singer reading a chart in D# Locrian would see four sharps and might assume E major. It's the melody and the bass that tell the ear D# is the center.
This also points to the biggest danger for a melody writer. Linger on E or B, or let your tune finish on E, and the music will quietly slide into sounding like E major. To keep it Locrian, keep pulling attention back to D#.
Home Notes and Restless Notes
Think of the seven notes as having different weights:
- D# is home, even if it's an uneasy one. Start and end phrases here.
- F# and A belong to the home chord. They sound settled-ish over D#dim, and A adds that eerie tritone color.
- G#, the perfect 4th, is the most stable-feeling note after the root. It's a good place to pause in the middle of a phrase.
- E is the restless neighbor. It sits a half step above the root and leans hard back down onto D#. That E-to-D# fall is the signature gesture of the mode.
- B and C# are passing notes. They're useful for movement, but don't rest on them for long.
A short tune that sounds unmistakably Locrian: D#, E, D#, F#, A, G#, F#, E, D#. Sing it slowly. Notice how the leap to A feels like stepping onto thin ice, and how the closing E practically drops back to D# on its own.
Harmony Underneath
The chords built from D# Locrian are:
- i°: D#dim / D#m7b5
- bII: E / Emaj7
- biii: F#m / F#m7
- iv: G#m / G#m7
- bV: A / Amaj7
- bVI: B / B7
- bvii: C#m / C#m7
Try this progression on piano or in your DAW: D#m7b5 - Emaj7 - C#m7 - D#m7b5. The move from E back down to D# mirrors the melodic half step and keeps the center firmly on D#. Loop it and improvise over it with the notes above, landing on D# whenever the D#m7b5 returns. This kind of dark, unresolved color turns up in heavy metal riffing and in tense film music, where unease is exactly the goal.
For Guitarists
On a standard-tuned guitar, you'll find the D# root on the low E string at fret 11 (and fret 23), and on the A string at fret 6 (and fret 18). Start from the A string at fret 6 and play the E-to-D# half step on that string, fret 7 back to fret 6. Then reach across for the A on the D string at fret 7 to hear the tritone against your root.
Something to Try
Record a low D# drone, or hold the key down on a keyboard. Over it, sing or play a four-bar phrase that uses A at least twice and ends with E falling to D#. Then write a second phrase that answers it by resting on G# halfway through. Two phrases are enough to hear what this mode does to a tune.
For the bigger picture, read The Locrian Mode.