Scale Dictionary is a guitar and piano scale reference. Choose a scale and root to see its notes and intervals on a horizontal six-string fretboard or a four-octave piano. The neck has open strings and 22 frets; show 5 to 22 frets at a time (12 by default) and scroll the mouse wheel over the neck, or use the neck position slider, to move along it.
Listen to each scale over one to three octaves on guitar or one to four octaves on piano: play up, play down from the top root, or play up and back. Up-and-back repeats the top root before descending, while looped exercises close on the bottom root and begin the full pattern again. Practise stepwise scale runs or scale sequences in thirds, fourths, fifths, and higher intervals, and loop any exercise in circle play from the root position you choose. The default start is the root on the 6th string. During playback only the sounding note is highlighted, the notes outside the run are dimmed so the scale shape stands out, and the neck view follows the notes. The source catalog stays private on the server; only the names and the selected scale's display data are sent to your browser.
Choose a meter such as 4/4, 3/4, 7/4, 12/8, 4/8, 3/8, or 7/8. The numerator sets the number of count-in clicks per bar, while the denominator identifies the written pulse (quarter notes in /4, eighth notes in /8). At the entered BPM, practice plays one note per pulse; the metronome stops for the practice run. Press Stop to cancel during the count-in or playback. Piano note names are shown on every key by default and can be hidden with the Piano note labels toggle. A separate Played piano note name toggle controls the sounding note's label. Both controls are shown only in piano mode. Your last scale and settings are remembered when you come back, and the Share button links to exactly the scale you are viewing.
The scale menu is organised for jazz improvisation. It starts with the seven major modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian), followed by the seven modes of melodic minor: Melodic Minor (Ionian ♭3), Dorian b2, Lydian Augmented, Lydian Dominant, Mixolydian b6, Aeolian b5 and the Altered scale. Next comes a jazz scale syllabus for major, dominant 7th, sus4, minor, half-diminished and diminished chords: bebop major, dominant, minor and half-diminished scales, whole-half and half-whole diminished, whole tone, blues, major and minor pentatonic, harmonic major and minor, augmented and the Spanish (Phrygian dominant) scale. More exotic, pentatonic and world scales follow. Every scale appears only once, under its best-known name, with alternative names in brackets.
Scale Dictionary harmonizes every scale by stacking thirds from each scale degree, showing the diatonic four-note seventh chords with Roman numeral analysis, for example Imaj7, ii7, iii7, IVmaj7, V7, vi7 and viiø7 in a major key, or the i(maj7), Lydian dominant IV7 and half-diminished chords of melodic minor. Press Export harmonization MIDI to download a Standard MIDI file with each chord held for one bar at your chosen BPM and meter, closing on the first chord an octave higher. Open it in a DAW or notation program to practise chord-scale improvisation, build backing tracks, or study the harmony of modes, the harmonic minor scale and exotic scales.