Music Scale Chart For Piano

This piano scale chart lets you play any blues scale, pentatonic, major or minor scale immediately and see it as well as hear it. To explore the patterns simply click straight onto the keyboard with your mouse or use your computer keyboard (for a more traditonal experience). It is designed to make the interface simple enough that you can concentrate on learning about how scales is constructed. Here you have control over which scale you want, and what its root note should of be.

To set the root note, click one of the buttons in the row marked ‘Root’. This will then set the starting pitch of the scale. Simply select one of Scales from the bottom list and the matching keys will light up across keyboard showing your selection at a glance.

How to Use the Piano Scale Chart

It displays a piano keyboard (two octaves) on the main screen. Any notes of this scale is indicated with an orange highlight. It also marks the root note in red so you can easily see where the pattern starts and ends, as you play through various scales you can visually observe which notes sits on the white or the black keys.

Using either your trackpad or mouse, you tap on the piano keys to play them. Every key has its own sound and each tap will produce a brief tone of that pitch. Alternatively, you can play the notes from your computer keyboard. Simply tab across the keys and tap the spacebar or enter key to hear it played back. If you’re used to navigating keyboards this way, it makes it much quicker than play.

There is a notable Play Scale button that will automatically run through your chosen pattern. Click this and the instrument will play the scale from the root note down to bottom. As each note sounds the keys light up briefly so you know where you are in the scale. Try using this to listen to how different scales flows over time.

Below the keyboard there is a readout that gives you information on exactly what you are playing. In this instance it spells the note name out in its scale. The step pattern is also shown by semitones. You can see from the number how many half-steps or whole steps each note has from the next. If you wish to know more about the maths behind any scale then have a look at this.

You can control how loud or soft the audio plays back by a volume slider. If it’s too piercing for where you are, drag the slider to the left to turn down the volume. Once you have it dialed in one way, you can play around with other combos without needing to reset. As you jump from scale to scale, root to root, setting will stay in place.

To get a bigger look at the keyboard itself, go up to the top right of the widget and hit the Fullscreen button. That will blow up the widget to take over your whole browser window. That’s where you can get enough space to see all the highlighted keys clear. When you’re finished, just tap that button again or press Escape to shrink back down to its normal size.

The How to play panel sums up the key functions in one place for easy reference. Simply tap on the button to open up a short list of tips and instructions. If you’ve forgotten how the keyboard mapping works, or just want a reminder of what all the colours represent then this is handy. When you don’t need as much space on screen for keys, just hide it again.

For example, you could try contrasting a major scale with its relative minor and notice the difference that changing the root makes to the mood. The naturaly minor often sounds darker than the stable, bright sound of the major. Alternatively, why not experiment with the pentatonic scales that are popular across many styles of music and very versatile. Simply use the play function to get a quick feel for them.

As you change between scales, pay attention to the step pattern indicated in the readout. You’ll notice there is an additional half step added to the blues scale that creates the unique sound of the blues. Being able to see the numbers makes the theory click for you, connecting it with what you are hearing come out of your speakers. It brings the abstract to life and makes it audible.

This is really useful for trying out fingerings on the keyboard as well as a warm-up prior to a lesson. Although it’s not a replacement for playing a genuine instrument, it provides a great way of practicing. Spend some time on each option at a comfortabley volume level. Choose a root note that you know such as C, then see how far you get.