# Scales, and the chords inside them

Play a scale one note at a time with its notes marked on the keys, then drill the triads and seventh chords of the same key.

## One note at a time

Pick a key and a scale and PianoKitty asks for it note by note. The row above the question shows the whole scale with your current note marked, so you can see what you have played and what comes next.

There are 23 scales, each in every key: major and the three minors, the church modes, the blues and bebop scales, and the chromatic scale.

![The practice screen walking C minor note by note, with the scale notes tinted on the keyboard.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/hero.webp)

## The scale, drawn on the keyboard

Scale highlighting marks every note of the key on the keyboard, either as **tinted keys** or as **dots** under them, whichever distracts you less. Seeing the scale under your hands makes its shape easier to remember.

![The keyboard with dots marking the notes of the scale.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/bullets.webp)

You can also show fingering: the numbers 1 to 5 over the keys, following the standard fingering for the scale. Fingering is hard to work out on your own, so it helps to have it in front of you.

![The keyboard with fingering numbers over the keys.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/fingering.webp)

## The chords of the key

Switch the voicing from single notes to **triads**, **sevenths** or **ninths**, and the app asks for the chords built on each degree of the same scale, in order. Together they make up the harmony of the key.

The question can name them as chords (C, Dm, Em…), as Roman numerals (I, ii, iii…), as numerals with quality marks, as plain numbers, or by function (tonic, dominant, subdominant).

![The practice screen asking for the first degree of C minor as a Roman numeral, with the chord row above.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/diatonic-triads.webp)

![The same drill with seventh chords.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/diatonic-sevenths.webp)

## How it runs

Choose the tonic, the scale, the voicing and how the question is worded. Then choose how the scale moves: straight up, up and down, up and down with the top note played only once, or into a new key on each pass, around the circle of fifths or chromatically.

![The sequence setting: in order, up and down, around the circle of fifths, chromatic.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/sequence.webp)

> You can also require several flawless loops before a scale counts as done, and choose whether the top note is played once or twice where the scale turns around.

![The scales section of the Preferences page.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/preferences.webp)

## On a phone too

![Scale practice on a phone.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/scale-practice/mobile.webp)

## Try a drill

- Try it: [C minor, note by note](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=C&mode=naturalMinor&voicing=singleNotes&seq=inOrder&hl=keys&acc=flat): The scale in order, drawn on the keys.
- Try it: [A harmonic minor, up and down](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=A&mode=harmonicMinor&voicing=singleNotes&seq=inOrder&repeat=top&hl=keys): The minor scale with a raised seventh, turning around at the top.
- Try it: [The triads of the key](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=C&mode=naturalMinor&voicing=triads&qls=romanQuality&acc=flat): i, ii°, III… in C minor, asked as numerals.
- Try it: [Sevenths of every key](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=scales&key=C&mode=major&voicing=sevenths&seq=inOrder&safter=cofCW&safn=1&safok=false): Four-note chords on every degree, moving round the circle of fifths.

Related: [Modes of the major scale](https://pianokitty.com/features/modes.md), [Chord progressions](https://pianokitty.com/features/progressions.md), [Chord names, numerals or functions](https://pianokitty.com/features/question-label.md)

Source: https://pianokitty.com/features/scale-practice