English

All scales

144 scales, from major and minor through the modes to pentatonic and blues. Each with its notes, key signature, keyboard and shapes for guitar and ukulele.

Major

The basic scale of Western music: two whole tones, a semitone, three whole tones, a semitone.

Minor

Natural minor — the same notes as the major scale a minor third above, counted from a different starting note.

Harmonic minor

The seventh degree is raised so that it leads to the tonic. That creates a step of one and a half tones between the sixth and seventh degrees.

Melodic minor

Sixth and seventh degrees are raised, smoothing out the leap of the harmonic minor scale.

Dorian

Minor with a raised sixth. The mode of jazz and countless folk tunes.

Phrygian

Minor with a lowered second — the semitone right above the tonic gives it its Spanish colour.

Lydian

Major with a raised fourth. Floating and open; common in film music.

Mixolydian

Major with a lowered seventh. The scale of the dominant seventh chord, and of blues and rock.

Locrian

The only mode with a diminished fifth above the tonic, which is why it rarely stands on its own.

Major pentatonic

Five notes: the major scale without its fourth and seventh degrees. With no semitones, nothing sounds wrong.

Minor pentatonic

Five notes, and the most-played scale on the guitar — natural minor without its second and sixth degrees.

Blues

The minor pentatonic with the blue note added: the lowered fifth degree.

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Every note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.