Scale finder
Already know a few notes (say, from a melody you picked out by ear) but not which scale they belong to? Check them below: this tool finds every scale that contains them, from the closest matches (fewest extra notes) to the broadest.
This tool works the opposite way from the regular scale library: instead of picking a scale and listening to its notes, you start from notes you've already identified — a melody worked out by ear, a riff spotted on an incomplete tab, an improvised phrase that sounded right without knowing why — and the tool finds the scale or scales that contain all of them. It's for anyone training their ear who wants to check a hunch, as much as for anyone new to theory looking for a concrete way to understand what a scale actually is: a set of notes, not a fixed sequence played in one order. What you gain is a shortcut to identify the theoretical frame behind a musical idea you already found by ear, without testing every scale one by one.
How to read the results
Check the notes you already know (at least two or three for a useful result), then submit: the tool compares your selection against every scale in the catalog and shows the ones that contain each checked note, sorted from closest match (few extra notes) to widest. The same set of notes often belongs to more than one scale at once — that's normal, not an error: for instance, the same seven notes form both a major scale and its relative minor, played from a different root.
The more notes you check, the tighter the result list gets — makes sense, since every added note rules out scales that don't contain it. With just two or three notes, expect a broad list: it's only by adding more notes as you identify them by ear that the result narrows down to one likely scale.
Practical tips and common mistakes
- Start with the most stable notes in a melody — the ones it seems to "rest" on, often at the start or end of a phrase — rather than passing notes, which are harder to pin down by ear with confidence.
- Only check notes you're sure about: a single wrong note added to the selection can knock the right scale off the results list, or bring up one that's completely unrelated.
- If the result offers several scales sharing the same notes (a major scale and its relative minor, for instance), what settles it isn't in the note list itself: it's the note the melody rests on or returns to most often that reveals the actual root.
- Don't forget pentatonic scales as a hypothesis: with only five notes, a pentatonic melody can look like a truncated excerpt of a seven-note major or minor scale until you've identified three or four notes.
- Once you've identified the scale, check it by playing it on the neck rather than trusting the name alone: your ear is still the final test — this tool only narrows down which hypotheses to try.
Concrete example
Say you've worked out A, C and E by ear in a melody. Check those three notes: the result includes both the A natural minor scale and the C major scale, since they're exactly the same seven notes seen from two different roots. To settle it, listen for whether the melody "lands" on A (minor) or on C (major) — or add another note you catch elsewhere in the song to narrow the search.
Once the scale is identified, the scale library shows its full position on the neck, and the dedicated scales category in the sheet catalog offers concrete exercises to practice it.