Scale Practice

The Scale Practice tool drills scales four different ways, covering the modes, harmonic minor and melodic minor from every root. Sign in and spaced repetition decides which scale you should practise next, so you steadily cover them all without having to plan anything.

You can play with the mouse, your computer keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard — see Playing the keyboard and Playing with a MIDI keyboard.

The four modes

• Play — you're shown a scale name; play it on the keyboard, ascending then descending, starting in any octave you like. Correct notes light up as you go.
• Identify by ear — a scale is played; pick which type you heard from the buttons.
• Spell — you're shown a scale name; build its spelling note by note from a palette of note names, including the correct enharmonics (F♯ is not G♭ here).
• Name from notes — a scale is shown on the keyboard; name the type.

In each round, Listen plays (or replays) the prompt and Reveal shows you the answer if you're stuck. Wrong attempts are counted as slips, not failures — feedback is immediate and you can always try again.

Scheduled practice (signed in)

When you're signed in, each mode keeps its own spaced-repetition queue — the same expanding-interval idea described in Testing yourself:

• Open the Study set panel to choose which scale types you're working on and how many new items per day to introduce.
• In Scheduled mode the queue picks the scale; your grade is worked out automatically from your attempt — a clean run scores well, slips and reveals bring the scale back sooner. There are no rating buttons to press.
• Next moves on; an unfinished scale rotates to the back of the queue and stays due.
• When nothing is due you're caught up in that mode: the tool tells you when your next review lands, and you can switch to Free play to keep drilling.

Free play

In Free play (and any time you're not signed in) you pick the scale type and the tonic yourself — or set the tonic to Random to be dealt a fresh root each round. Free play is deliberately ungraded, so experimenting never distorts your schedule.

Your stats

Below the controls each mode shows what's due and how many new items you've started today, so you always know where you stand.