Scale Ear Trainer
Hear it, name it. Climb the levels, drill the one note that decides it, then race the clock.
Press Play to hear the first scale.
Spotlight
Master volume25%
What you are training
Something is played from a random tonic. Your job is to name it by its characteristic degree — the one note that separates it from its neighbours. Dorian and Aeolian are identical except for one note: the 6th.
Levels
You start at Level 1 — Major vs minor. Get 8 correct out of your last 10 answers at the level you are on and the next one unlocks: the minor family, then the seven church modes, then the pentatonic and symmetrical scales, and finally all fourteen at once. The bar under the level map shows how close you are. Locked levels are dashed and cannot be selected; unlocked ones can be revisited at any time.
Adaptive picking
Rounds are not drawn evenly. Every scale carries a weight built from your smoothed miss rate on it plus a decaying memory of your most recent mistakes, so the scales you keep failing come round several times more often than the ones you have mastered. Scales currently being pushed at you are tagged Focus in the per-scale breakdown.
Round types
- Full scale — the classic run, up and/or down, every degree in order.
- Melodic fragment — a short phrase built from the scale with a real contour and rhythm instead of a plain run. The characteristic degree is always in there somewhere. This is much closer to spotting a mode in actual music.
- Single degree — the tonic sounds, then one other note, and you name the interval as a scale degree. Eleven buttons, from b2 to 7. Telling b3 from 3, or #4 from 4, in isolation is the skill everything else rests on — keep the drone on for this one.
Sprint
Press Start 60-second sprint (or the S key) for a timed run at the current level and round type. Rounds advance automatically the moment you answer, and your best sprint total is kept for the session in the Sprint best tile.
Spotlight
After every answer the Spotlight panel isolates the one or two degrees that separate the scale you heard from its nearest neighbour — Dorian's natural 6 against Aeolian's b6, Lydian's #4 against Ionian's 4. Each button plays that single note against the sustained tonic drone, and Hear both, back to back alternates them so the difference is impossible to miss.
Controls
- Level map — pick any unlocked level; the answer grid always matches that level's scale set exactly.
- Ascending / Descending / Up & down — playback direction for full-scale rounds. Every version ends on the octave or back on the tonic.
- Slow / Medium / Fast — note length (0.42 s, 0.30 s, 0.21 s per note); fragments inherit it, single degrees are always held long.
- Tonic first — plays the home note on its own before the scale or fragment starts.
- Tonic drone — holds the tonic underneath the whole round. This is the single best way to hear modal colour: every degree is heard against home.
- Play / Replay — mouse or touch tap, or press Space.
- Next round — new scale and new random tonic, or press Enter.
- Answer grid — tap or click. From the keyboard press 1–9, 0 for the tenth, then Q W E R for the eleventh to fourteenth. The key is printed on each button.
- Hear both — after a wrong scale answer, plays your guess and then the true scale from the same tonic, lighting up each degree as it sounds.
- Master volume — slider; arrow keys adjust it while it has focus.
- Reset score — clears score, streak, sprint best, level progress and the per-scale breakdown. Nothing is stored between visits.
- Fullscreen — expands the widget; press it again or use Esc to leave.
Scale formulas (semitones from the tonic)
W = whole step (2 semitones), H = half step (1), W+H = three semitones. Rows outside your current level are dimmed.
Two tips
- Turn the drone on and sing the tonic. Each scale degree then has an obvious flavour instead of being just "the next note up".
- Do not try to hear all seven notes. Listen for one thing: is the 3rd major or minor? Then ask the follow-up — a minor 3rd means checking the 6th (Dorian vs Aeolian) and the 2nd (Phrygian); a major 3rd means checking the 4th (Lydian) and the 7th (Mixolydian).
In this app, Scale Ear Trainer will put you through some listening rounds designed to help you identify the scale being played. Simply use your computer keyboard (or your mouse if you prefer) to control the whole thing. By pressing certain keys on keyboard you can select your answers for a faster workflow. Basically, you hear a scale pattern being played and then have to pick right scale name from the list underneath the playback controls.
To get started, hit the Space bar or click the Play Scale button to hear a sequence of notes. You’ll hear a random-scale played each time, so it’s not a melody to remember but a pattern that, once learned, will help you identify the scale. Then click on the button you think is the correct one. On a keyboard, just press the numbers 1-9 (or zero for number ten) or the letter keys: Q-W-E-R. The buttons shows their keyboard shortcuts in the corner as well, which can come in handy.
How to Use the Scale Ear Trainer App
At the top is the Level Map where you follow along completing a set of challenges. Starting out, you’re given a basic decision about playing a minor or major scale. Answer right, and you start filling in the progress bar. When you hit the minimum accuracy needed to pass, that level will be automatically unlocked for you. If you click an already unlocked level, it will replay so you can work on mastering that concept. That means you can practice unlocked levels to ensure you spends more time on the concepts you find most difficult.
The Round Type selector let you vary the way scales are played. There is a full scale option that simply plays each note in turn, which is great if you’re learning. There’s an option for Melodic Fragment that picks out just a small phrase that shows how scales occur in actualy music. And Single Degree isolates any single degree following the tonic note so it trains you to hear certain intervals such as a flat seventh or a major third. These modes will help you build your ear from the ground up.
There are options for how you want things played back. You can choose a direction (ascending, descending, or both). You can choose the speed (slow or fast). There is also an option to play the home note first (Tonic First). Finally, you can choose to play the root note throughout the phrase on top of everything else (Tonic Drone). This is really helpful as it lets you hear color of each individual degree easy.
You enter your answer and get instant feedback from the widget. Is it a correct guess? The answer will appear as a green or red verdict below. Then it narrows down to the Spotlight section which highlights exactly what notes identifies the scale you’ve just heard compared with others nearby. These are the buttons you can push to listen to those key degrees played over the drone sound, comparing them like this is the quickest route to knowing how Aeolian differs from Dorian, for instance.
Pressing S or clicking on Start 60-second Sprint starts the timed challenge, which advances through each round as soon as you respond to them. Time is displayed with a timer bar and your score updates in real time. You can use this mode to practice building fluency and confidence under pressure. You should of checked out your results in the bottom Score panel, which displays your overall accuracy, current streak, and