chordslol

The Tools

Scale Identifier

Play or type the notes and find every scale they belong to. Exact matches first, then the larger scales that contain your notes, then the smaller ones that fit inside them — searched against 107 scales with fretboard patterns.

Click the notes you played

Sharps as #, flats as b. Separate with spaces or commas — order matters only in that the first note is treated as the likely tonic.

7 notes

25 matching scales, 5 exact.

How scale identification works

A scale is a set of pitch classes — the twelve note names, with octaves and repeats collapsed away. Play C4, E4, G4 and C5, and the set is just {C, E, G}. Once your notes are reduced that way, identification becomes set comparison, and there are only three interesting relationships between your set and a scale's set.

Identical — you played exactly the notes of that scale. That is the answer people usually want, and it is the first group of results above. The scale is bigger — it contains everything you played plus extra notes, meaning you played a fragment. The scale is smaller — it sits entirely inside what you played, which is how you find the pentatonic hiding inside a seven-note scale. The fourth group, one note off, catches typos and passing tones.

Why the same notes name several scales

The white keys of a piano are one set of seven notes, and they spell seven different scales depending on where you start. Start on C and it's C major; start on A and it's A natural minor; start on D and it's D dorian. The notes are identical — what changes is which note the music treats as home, and that is decided by the bass, the chords and the phrasing, not by the note set.

So the tool takes a hint from you: whichever note you enter first is treated as the likely tonic, and scales rooted on it are ranked above the rest. If you are unsure, enter the note the passage keeps returning to, or the root of the chord underneath it.

Reading the results

Every result links to that scale's full page — notes, intervals, the chords built from it, and the fretboard patterns for guitar. The pattern count on each card tells you how many playable positions are documented, so you can go straight from “what scale is this” to “where do I play it”.

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FAQ

Common questions.

How do I identify a scale from a set of notes?

Reduce the notes to pitch classes (ignore octaves and duplicates), then compare that set against known scales. If the sets are identical, you have an exact match. If a scale contains everything you played plus more, you played a fragment of it. If a scale sits entirely inside your notes, it is a smaller scale you can solo with. The tool above does all three comparisons against 107 scales at once.

Why does one set of notes match several scales?

Because modes share notes. C major, D dorian, E phrygian, G mixolydian and A natural minor are all built from the same seven pitches — what separates them is which note behaves as home. That is why the first note you enter is treated as the likely tonic and ranked first: the notes alone cannot settle the question, only the music can.

How many notes do I need?

Two will produce matches, but they will be very broad. Five notes usually narrows it to a handful, and seven is normally decisive within a family of modes. If you are transcribing, collect the notes across a full phrase rather than a single bar.

What does “contains your notes” mean?

That scale has every note you entered and at least one more. It is the answer you want when you only played part of a scale — a three-note riff, say — and are trying to work out the full palette it came from.

What does “fits inside your notes” mean?

That scale is a subset of what you played. It is how you find the pentatonic hiding inside a seven-note scale — the safe five notes to improvise with over a passage whose full scale you already know.

Does spelling matter — is A♯ the same as B♭?

For matching, no: the tool works in pitch classes, so A♯ and B♭ are the same input. For notation it matters a great deal, and the scale pages spell every scale correctly for its key — A♭ major uses A♭ D♭ E♭, never G♯ C♯ D♯.

Which scales does it search?

All 107 seeded scales: major and natural, harmonic and melodic minor in all 12 keys; major and minor pentatonic in all 12; and the blues scale plus dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, locrian and whole tone on the most-used roots.