Music scales: the notes in every major, minor and modal scale
Pick a root and a scale to see its notes, its degrees and the step pattern behind it — free, in your browser, no account. All twelve major scales are written out further down. And if you don't know which scale the song you're playing over uses, that has to come from the recording: we read the key straight out of the audio.
C major scale
no sharps or flats- C1
- D2
- E3
- F4
- G5
- A6
- B7
One octave. Lit keys are the notes of C major; the rest are the notes it leaves out.
W–W–H–W–W–W–H
W is a whole step (two semitones, two frets), H is a half step (one), 1½ is three. Apply the same pattern from any root and you get the same scale in a new key.
The one every other scale is described against. Seven notes, and the pattern of gaps between them — whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half — is what makes it sound settled and bright rather than tense.
Heard in: Most pop, folk and nursery melodies; anything that resolves happily.
A scale is a pattern, not a list
Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half — that sequence of steps is the major scale, and applying it from a different starting note gives the same scale in a new key. Learn the shape once and all twelve come with it; the accidentals in a key signature are only the pattern insisting on itself.
Minor is three notes moved
Flatten the 3rd, 6th and 7th of a major scale and you have natural minor. Equivalently: start a major scale three semitones lower and you land on its relative minor, built from exactly the same notes. That is why C major and A minor share a key signature and why a song can slide between them without a single new note.
The modes are one set, seven homes
Play the white keys from D and you get dorian; from E, phrygian; from G, mixolydian. No note has changed — only which one feels like home, which changes every distance and so changes the character. Major and natural minor are simply two of the seven.
A reference can only look up a key you already have.
Listing the notes of E flat major is a lookup — no file, no account, instant, and the panel above does it. Working out that the track you want to solo over is in E flat major is a different job, and nothing on a chart can do it.
Most sites answer it by matching your track by name against a catalogue, which fails the moment the record is a promo, an edit, a bootleg or your own unreleased mix. We do it the other way round: hand over the audio and our pipeline measures the key, the tempo and the chords from the file itself.
Take the key it gives you, select it above, and you have the seven notes that fit — and the pentatonic that fits even more safely.
All 12 major scales
One for each note of the octave, in the order they appear on a keyboard. Where a scale has a second, equally correct spelling, it is named alongside.
| Scale | Notes | Key signature |
|---|---|---|
| C | C D E F G A B | none |
| D♭ / C♯ | D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C | 5 flats |
| D | D E F♯ G A B C♯ | 2 sharps |
| E♭ | E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C D | 3 flats |
| E | E F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D♯ | 4 sharps |
| F | F G A B♭ C D E | 1 flat |
| G♭ / F♯ | G♭ A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ F | 6 flats |
| G | G A B C D E F♯ | 1 sharp |
| A♭ | A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G | 4 flats |
| A | A B C♯ D E F♯ G♯ | 3 sharps |
| B♭ | B♭ C D E♭ F G A | 2 flats |
| B | B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A♯ | 5 sharps |
All 12 natural minor scales
The same twelve key signatures with a different home. Each of these shares its notes with the major scale three semitones above its root.
| Scale | Notes | Key signature |
|---|---|---|
| C | C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ | 3 flats |
| C♯ | C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B | 4 sharps |
| D | D E F G A B♭ C | 1 flat |
| E♭ / D♯ | E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ | 6 flats |
| E | E F♯ G A B C D | 1 sharp |
| F | F G A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ | 4 flats |
| F♯ | F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D E | 3 sharps |
| G | G A B♭ C D E♭ F | 2 flats |
| G♯ / A♭ | G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E F♯ | 5 sharps |
| A | A B C D E F G | none |
| B♭ / A♯ | B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ | 5 flats |
| B | B C♯ D E F♯ G A | 2 sharps |
Working on the same track's tempo too? Turn a BPM into delay times, or see how these keys sit on the circle of fifths.
Music scales FAQ
How many major scales are there?
Twelve — one starting on each note of the octave. You will sometimes see fifteen, which counts the three that have two names: B major and C flat major are the same twelve keys on a piano written two ways, as are F sharp / G flat and C sharp / D flat. The table on this page lists the twelve, and names the second spelling where anyone actually uses it.
What are the notes in a major scale?
Start anywhere and go up in this pattern of steps: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. From C that gives the white keys — C D E F G A B. From G the pattern forces an F sharp; from F it forces a B flat. That is where key signatures come from: they are just the accidentals the pattern demands.
What is the difference between a major and a minor scale?
Three notes. A natural minor scale is a major scale with its 3rd, 6th and 7th lowered by a half step, and the 3rd is the one you hear — it is what makes a chord sound bright or dark. The other way to see it is that every minor scale is a major scale started three semitones lower: A minor and C major contain exactly the same seven notes.
What is a relative minor?
The minor scale built from the same notes as a given major scale, starting on its 6th degree — three semitones below the major root. C major and A minor are relatives; G major and E minor; E flat major and C minor. They share a key signature, which is why a song can move between them without a single new note. The panel above names the relative of whatever scale you select, and switches to it in one click.
What are modes, and how are they different from scales?
A mode is the same set of notes with a different note treated as home. Play the white keys from D instead of C and you get D dorian: still no sharps or flats, but the tonic has moved, so the distances from home are different and it sounds minor rather than major. Dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian and locrian are the other five starting points; major and natural minor are two of the seven themselves.
What is the pentatonic scale?
A five-note scale: the major scale with its 4th and 7th removed, or the minor scale with its 2nd and 6th removed. Taking those notes out leaves no half steps at all, which is why nothing you play in it lands on a clash — it is the first scale most guitarists learn to solo with. Add one more note between the 4th and the 5th and you have the blues scale.
How do I find out which scale a song uses?
That cannot be looked up on a chart — it has to be measured from the recording. Upload an MP3 or WAV and ChordSonic's pipeline reads the key straight out of the audio, along with the tempo and the chords, and you can bring the key back here to see the notes it gives you. Most sites match your track by name against a catalogue instead, which stops working the moment the record is a promo, an edit or your own mix.
Which scale should I use over a chord progression?
Start with the scale of the key the progression is in: its seven notes are the ones the chords are built from. If the progression is minor, natural minor is the safe default and the minor pentatonic is the safer one, since it drops the two notes most likely to clash. From there the modes are the interesting detours — mixolydian over a dominant vamp, dorian over a minor groove that refuses to sound sad.
Is this scale finder free?
Yes. The picker, the reference tables and the keyboard all run in your browser, with no account and no upload. Detecting the key of an actual audio file is a separate step and has a free tier of its own.
Don't know the key? Get it from the file.
Upload an MP3 or WAV and ChordSonic reads the key, the tempo and the chords straight out of the audio — no track name to look up, no catalogue to be missing from. Then bring the key back here for its notes.
Find the key from audio