Why Does Locrian Suck?

...and why do people not understand it?

Because Sometimes Google Gets It Wrong

So I was going to write an article on Locrian and I wanted to be sure that I wasn't regurgitating the same info on the Internet. I googled "Locrian" and was shocked at some of the results. As an musician I could quickly tell which answers and responses, related to Locrian, were written by someone with ZERO musical knowledge. I can be sympathetic to writers who want to make difficult concepts easy to understand, but dumbing a topic down to the point where all meaning is lost is... well, it's silly. It just is. So, let's go over some of the questions and responses so that we can better understand what makes Locrian great for pro musicians AND why is sucks for the novice players.

What is Locrian?

Right at the top of the webpage Google gave a description of Locrian.

"The Locrian mode is the seventh mode of the major scale. It is either a musical mode or simply a diatonic scale. On the piano, it is the scale that starts with B and only uses the white keys from there.” - Wikipedia

Yes, it's the seventh mode because Locrian starts on the seventh degree of the Major Scale. Instead of humming "do re mi fa so la ti do" try starting and ending on "ti". That's the sound of Locrian. It's dissonance without end. It's like a sentence with no punctuation. When listening to Locrian by itself it's like listening to someone speak in incomplete thoughts. No, thank you.

Can we treat Locrian as a diatonic scale? Yes and no. If we stick to Locrian as a scale without deviation, then we will create musical run-on sentence. To use Locrian and make it useful we have that dissonance lead us to another mode like Ionian of Aeolian. These other two modes are great at acting as the punctuation mark of Locrian. We can say something strange in Locrian and then follow it up with a major or minor scale to give context to what we said. So, "yes" it's a scale, but "no" because we need to use other scales for punctuation and context.

The last part from Google made me gasp and laugh at the same time. No lie. Yes, starting on the piano's B key and playing just white keys is B Locrian. But we also have F# Locrian. Start with the black key of F#, avoid the white key of F, and play the other six white keys and ta-da, you have F# Locrian. In fact, we can play Locrian from any of the twelve notes, so there are many ways to access the dissonant flavor of Locrian.

Q: Why is Locrian rarely used? A:  Simply put, it typically doesn't sound that good.

To non-musicians and novice players I can understand why Locrian is avoided. The dissonance is so harsh and unending that it can feel like a vortex of noise. But check out "Trudgin'" by Julian Lage. About a minute and a half in we get that unending dissonance. The cool thing about this song is that the "vortex of noise" is actually pulling us somewhere. Around two minutes in we find ourselves in a psychedelic rock groove. Check it out and listen to the song as a journey. Along the way we get that dissonance as part of the voyage. If you find yourself enjoying this three and a half minute ride, then you just proved that Locrian can sound good.

Is Locrian the darkest mode?

No. Thinking of modes, scales, and even chords as dark or light doesn't really provide any useful context. More specific terms like tense, anxious, or piercing help describe Locrian. If we do use dark and light as descriptions, then we could call a major chord played in the lower register dark and a minor chord much higher to call it light. Again, that doesn't help describe the sound. We should use words like deep, rich, airy, and spacious to help pinpoint the qualities of sounds. With that said, here's Google's answer to, "Is Locrian the darkest mode?"

"The Locrian mode is arguably the darkest of the minor modes."

This is wrong because Locrian is not a minor mode. Period. It is a diminished mode. Major modes will always have the degrees known as the "major third" and "perfect fifth". Minor modes have a "perfect fifth"

but use a "minor third". Basically, modes get their major and minor qualities from their third degree notes. The perfect fifth comes along for the ride.

Augmented and diminished modes are different. An augmented mode will have a major third and an "augmented fifth" or #5. Diminished modes use the minor third but have a "diminished fifth" or b5.

To call Locrian a minor mode ignores the point of the b5, which is to resolve it. Resolution is that movement from a run-on sentence to a clear punctuation mark. We can use major and minor modes to resolve the tense of a run-on sentence, but our diminished modes exist to give us that tension. What's also bad about calling Locrian a minor mode is that it suggests we can end in Locrian. Try listening to "Trudgin'" again and stop at the minute and a half mark. This is like ending Julian's run-on sentence and stopping with no punctuation. It makes absolutely no sense. It isn't until we continue to the end of the song that we get a sense of resolution. So, no. Locrian is not minor. It is "diminished."

Check out this audio clip where I play C# Locrian with some swung beats and free-time feel to create that “disjointed” sound. The chord at the end is Bm, which acts as a great Aeolian punctuation mark to my run-on sentence.

I hope this gives you a better viewpoint on what the sound of Locrian and other diminished modes can do for you. Let me know what you think in the comments below and thanks for reading.