The Phrygian Scale on Guitar

Phrygian is natural minor with one note changed: the 2nd drops a half step. In A, that’s A B♭ C D E F G. The B♭ sits one fret above the root and pulls down into it, and that half step is the whole sound. It’s the darkest of the modes, and the one riffs are built on more than solos.

Most lessons teach Phrygian like every other mode: here are the notes, here’s a box, run it up and down. Run it like that and it sounds like any minor scale with one odd note in it. Phrygian earns its place when you use the half step on purpose, in a riff, a pedal or a cadence. This page shows you the notes and the shapes, then where that half step goes.

Hear it first

Let the open A string ring. Play this up the G string slowly and let each note hang over it.

One fret is the only difference. The B at the 4th fret is a whole step above the A. It moves on easily and the sound stays open. That’s natural minor. The B♭ at the 3rd fret is a half step above the A, pressed right up against it, and it wants to fall straight back down. That pressure is Phrygian.

Four patterns, root to root

You’ll find plenty of five-box Phrygian charts elsewhere. I don’t use them. A six-string box hides the root somewhere in the middle of a grid of dots. A one-octave pattern that runs from A to A keeps home at the bottom and the top, so you always know which note you’re on.

It also makes the B♭ easy to find. In every pattern below, it’s the second note, one fret above the bottom A. Play the first two notes of any pattern and you’ve played the Phrygian sound. All four share the same layout: three notes, three notes, two notes.

That’s all the fingering you need to start using Phrygian. Find any A, play the pattern that starts there, and the B♭ is right next to it.

Phrygian in every key

The Phrygian note is always the 2nd, one fret above the root, and the home move is the major chord built on that note falling into the minor chord on the root. The patterns above move to any key: put the root on the key note.

When to use Phrygian, and when not to

You don’t need theory to know when Phrygian fits. You need one note and a look at the chords. In A, the note is B♭ for Phrygian and B for natural minor. In another key, check the table above.

• If any chord has a B♭ in it, Phrygian is your minor scale.
• If any chord has a B in it, Phrygian clashes. Use natural minor over that chord.
• If none of the chords has either, it’s your choice.

That test only works for A. In A, the chords that bring the B♭ are B♭, Gm and C7. The ones that rule Phrygian out are G, Em and E7. Often there’s no chord at all, just a riff on the open string, and the riff supplies the B♭. These are the places you’ll hear it most:

The chord it lives on

Play a B♭ chord (x13331), then Am (x02210). On the top three strings, this is what happens:

B♭ falls to A on the G string. F falls to E on the top string. Everything moves down into the Am. Most chord changes land from below or from a distance. This one lands from directly above, a fret away, and it sounds final in a way nothing else does. That’s the Phrygian cadence: the major chord one fret above home, falling into home.

The walk down

Put two more chords in front of it and you get Dm, C, B♭, Am. Every chord steps down to the next, and the last step is the half step.

This is the progression most people mean by “Spanish”. Strictly, flamenco usually ends it on A major, not Am, and that ending needs a C#, which takes you out of Phrygian. Over the first three chords, and over the Am ending, Phrygian is the scale.

Riffs come first

Phrygian riffs use very few notes. The most basic one there is uses two: the open A string, and B♭ at the 1st fret.

The open string chugs and the B♭ breaks in. Change where the B♭ lands in the bar and you’ve got a different riff from the same two notes. Move the whole thing to the low E string (open E, F at the 1st fret) and you’ve got the sound of a lot of metal.

Where the B♭ goes

The B♭ means something different over every chord. That’s what stops Phrygian sounding like one trick repeated.

• Over Am, it’s tension. Hold it, then let it fall to A.
• Over B♭, it’s the root. Land on it.
• Over Gm, it’s the 3rd. A sweet, safe landing.
• Over C7, it’s the 7th. Let it fall to A when the chord goes back to Am.

Common questions