Scale Trainer
Fourteen scales on a fretboard or a keyboard, spelled the way your key signature actually spells them — then five ways to practise them.
Every note on the board plays when you press it, in every mode.
Playing -- Ready
Pause stops the scale and Resume plays it again from the beginning. A scheduled sequence cannot be halted part way through a note, so that is what pause honestly does here.
Frets 0 to 15, standard tuning. Scroll sideways on a narrow screen. The root note is coral and ringed; the other scale tones are blue.
Two octaves at a time, with an octave selector. Eighty-eight keys on a phone would give each one about three pixels.
Note quiz
Question 1 of 10
Microphone practice
Play the highlighted note on your instrument and the trainer moves to the next one. Optional — every other mode on this page works without it.
The microphone is not open. It is requested only when you press start.
A note counts once it is within 25 cents of the target and has been held steady for a moment. That is deliberately looser than a tuner: the attack of a plucked or bowed note is sharp for a fraction of a second however well it is played, and grading that would fail correct playing.
What this does not do. It compares pitch against an expected note. It says nothing about your tone, timing, technique or musicality, and it is not an assessment of your playing.
Audio is analysed in your browser and discarded frame by frame. Nothing is recorded, nothing is uploaded, and the microphone is released when you press stop, switch mode, hide the tab or leave the page.
C Major
Take this somewhere else
Your practice data
Your last key, scale, view and tempo are remembered in this browser so the page opens where you left it. There is no account, nothing is sent anywhere, and no audio is ever stored.
Questions
Why does F major show B♭ and not A♯?
Because they are the same key on a piano but not the same note in F major. A scale uses each letter once, so the fourth degree of F major has to be some kind of B — and to be the right pitch it must be B flat. Written as A sharp the scale would have two As and no B, which a musician reads as a mistake. Every scale here is spelled from its degrees for that reason, which is also why E major shows four sharps and G flat major shows a C flat.
Which scale should I learn first?
On guitar, minor pentatonic — five notes, no semitone steps, and it fits over a great deal of rock and blues. On piano, C major, because the fingering and the note names are both as simple as they get. After either, the major scale in a couple of keys is what everything else is described against.
Do I need a microphone?
No. Learn, Listen, Play Along and the note quiz all work without one, and the microphone is requested only if you press start in Microphone mode.
Can it tell me whether I am playing well?
No, and it does not try. It compares the pitch it detects against the note it expects. Tone, timing, dynamics, phrasing and technique are not measurable from a pitch track, so nothing here grades them.
What is the difference between a mode and a scale?
A mode is a scale — the word describes where you start. Playing the notes of C major from D gives D Dorian: the same seven notes with a different note behaving as home, which changes what the scale sounds like entirely. That is why Ionian and Aeolian are listed here as well as major and natural minor: they are the same shapes under the names used when the other modes are in play.
Why does the fretboard stop at fret 15?
Because everything past it repeats. Fret 12 is the octave, so frets 13 to 15 are frets 1 to 3 an octave up and the pattern from there is one you have already seen. Fifteen frets covers every shape without making each one three pixels wide on a phone.
A scale is a shape, a sound and a set of names
Most scale references give you one of those three. A chart gives you the shape but no sound. A play-along track gives you the sound but no names. A theory page gives you the names but nothing to look at while you play. This tool gives all three at once, which is the point: the fretboard or keyboard shows you where the notes are, pressing any of them plays it, and every note carries both its name and its scale degree.
Fourteen scales, spelled properly
Major, natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor ascending, major and minor pentatonic, the blues scale, and all seven modes of the major scale. Each one shows its formula, its semitone pattern, its scale degrees, its notes, its relative key where it has one, and the chords built on it.
The note names are spelled from the key rather than picked from a list of twelve. F major shows B flat, not A sharp. E major shows four sharps. G flat major shows a C flat. That is not pedantry: a scale uses each letter once, and a scale written with two Bs and no A reads to a musician as a mistake even when every pitch is right.
Five ways to practise
Learn shows the whole scale and plays any note you press. Listen plays it ascending, descending or both, over one to three octaves. Play along does the same at a tempo you set, with a metronome, highlighting each note as it arrives so you can play with it. Note quiz asks you to name notes and degrees and explains each answer. Microphone practice listens while you play the scale on a real instrument and moves to the next note when you get one right.
Guitar or piano
The fretboard covers frets 0 to 15 in standard tuning, with a left-handed option, fret markers, and the root note in a different colour and size from the other scale tones. Everything past fret 15 repeats what is already there.
The keyboard shows two octaves at a time with an octave selector. Eighty-eight keys on a phone would give each one about three pixels, so it does not try.
Microphone practice, and what it is not
Microphone mode is optional and every other mode works without it. Permission is requested only when you press start, audio is analysed in your browser frame by frame and discarded, nothing is recorded or uploaded, and the microphone is released when you stop, switch mode, hide the tab or leave.
It compares the pitch it detects against the note it expects, with a tolerance of 25 cents and a short hold before it judges - deliberately looser than a tuner, because the attack of a plucked or bowed note is sharp for a fraction of a second however well it is played. It says nothing about your tone, timing, technique or musicality. Those are not measurable from a pitch track and nothing here pretends otherwise.
Everything stays in your browser
Your last key, scale, view and tempo are remembered locally so the page opens where you left it. There is no account, no upload and no audio storage, and one button clears the lot.
.webp)
Quick answer
Choose a key and a scale to see it on a fretboard or keyboard with every note named and numbered. Press any note to hear it, play the whole scale at a tempo you set, test yourself with the note quiz, or switch on the microphone and play the scale on a real instrument.
Key facts
- Fourteen scales including all seven modes
- Correct key-based spelling, not chromatic guesswork
- Guitar fretboard with a left-handed option, or a piano keyboard
- Five practice modes including a note quiz
- Optional microphone practice - never required
- Scale formula, degrees, relative key and chord family
- Audio and microphone stay on your device
Frequently asked questions
Why does F major show B flat rather than A sharp?
Because they are the same key on a piano but not the same note in F major. A scale uses each letter once, so the fourth degree of F major must be some kind of B, and to be the right pitch it must be B flat. Written as A sharp the scale would have two As and no B, which a musician reads as a mistake. Every scale here is spelled from its degrees for that reason.
Do I need a microphone to use the scale trainer?
No. Learn, Listen, Play Along and the note quiz all work without one. The microphone is requested only if you press start in Microphone mode, and audio is analysed in your browser and never recorded or uploaded.
Can the scale trainer tell me whether I am playing well?
No, and it does not try. It compares the pitch it detects against the note it expects, with a 25-cent tolerance. Tone, timing, dynamics, phrasing and technique are not measurable from a pitch track, so nothing here grades them.
Which scale should I learn first?
On guitar, minor pentatonic - five notes, no semitone steps, and it fits over a great deal of rock and blues. On piano, C major. After either, the major scale in a couple of keys is what everything else gets described against.
What is the difference between a mode and a scale?
A mode is a scale; the word describes where you start. Playing the notes of C major from D gives D Dorian - the same seven notes with a different note behaving as home, which changes the sound completely.