Question 1

How do I tell the scales apart?

Accepted Answer

Count the notes first: five means pentatonic, six means blues, eight means one of the seven-note scales. Then listen to the third — major or minor — and the seventh: harmonic minor's raised seventh has a distinctive leap, Mixolydian is major with a flat seventh, Dorian is minor with a bright sixth.

Question 2

What is the listen mode for?

Accepted Answer

Learning the sound before you are tested on it. Choose a scale, play it, sing it back, play it from a different root. When you can hum each one from memory, the quiz gets much easier.

Question 3

Why does the quiz start on random notes?

Accepted Answer

So you learn the pattern of steps, not one key. A Dorian scale from D and a Dorian scale from A have the same shape; that shape is what the ear should recognise.

Scale practice — listen, play along, then name them by ear

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