Scale explorer: piano notes, degrees and modes
Choose a tonic, scale or mode, then follow each degree on piano or guitar.
Select a key to hear its pitch. Use Tab to reach keys and Enter or Space to play them.
Ready to play. Sound starts when you press Play.
Choose a collection
Set the tonic and the scale family. The note list and semitone pattern show what changes when you switch from major to natural minor, a pentatonic scale or a mode. You can read note names or degrees while following the same pitches.
- Choose A natural minor and read A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
- Compare harmonic minor, where G becomes G-sharp.
- Select a direction and play the ordered notes.
Read the direction label
In the classical melodic-minor setting, A minor ascends with F-sharp and G-sharp and descends with F and G natural. A fixed melodic-minor collection uses the raised form in both directions when that convention is selected. The direction label matters; do not assume every minor scale descends the same way.
Change the tonic as well as the name
Ionian shares the major pattern, and Aeolian shares natural minor. Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian have their own characteristic degree patterns. A mode describes how the notes relate to a center, not merely where your finger happens to start.
Sources and methods
- Open Music Theory: Major scales
- Minor scales
- ChordLilt product contract
- Open Music Theory: Diatonic modes