What scale am I singing? Press Start listening and sing or hum a phrase, or a scale, holding each note for a moment. This vocal scale finder picks out the notes you hold and lists the scales and keys that contain them, best fit first, with a clear “fits 5 of 5 notes” count.
It checks major, natural minor, harmonic minor, major pentatonic, minor pentatonic and blues scales in all 12 keys. No microphone? Tap the notes in by hand.
Vocal Scale Finder
Sing or hum a phrase or a scale. The tool picks out the notes you hold and lists the scales that contain them, with how many of your notes each one fits.
Press Start listening and allow microphone access. Sound is analysed in your browser; nothing is recorded or uploaded.
Your notes
Notes you hold for about a third of a second light up, with how long you sang them. Tap a note to remove it, or to add it by hand without the microphone.
Scales that fit your notes
No notes yet. Sing a phrase or a scale, or tap notes above.
Checks major, natural minor, harmonic minor, major and minor pentatonic and blues scales in all 12 keys, in standard tuning (A4 = 440 Hz). One voice at a time. Several scales often share the same notes, so the list is a guide, not a single right answer.
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How to Find the Scale You Are Singing
- Press Start listening and allow microphone access when your browser asks.
- Sing or hum the melody you want to check, or sing a scale up and down. Hold each note for at least a quarter of a second, on an open sound such as “la”, “ah” or “mm”.
- Aim for 4 or more different notes, or about 15 seconds of a phrase. The notes you hold light up under Your notes, with how many seconds you sang each one.
- Read Scales that fit your notes. The first scale fits best. Each one shows its notes, how many of your notes it contains and why it is ranked where it is.
- If a note is wrong (a cough, a slide, a note you did not mean), tap it to remove it. You can also tap notes to add them by hand.
- Optional: set the Home note, the note the melody wants to end on, and press Play scale to hear a candidate and sing along with it.
- Press Stop when you are done, and Copy result to keep the list.
Reading Your Result
- Fits N of M notes: M is the number of different notes you sang, N is how many of them are in that scale. “Fits 7 of 7 notes” means every note you sang belongs to the scale. “Fits 6 of 7” means one note does not.
- Share of singing time: the percentage of your held-note time spent on that scale’s notes. A long note counts more than a quick one, so a brief wrong note hurts less than a long one.
- Not sung: notes of the scale you did not sing. A scale that also fits but has fewer unused notes ranks higher.
- Home note: “you ended on C” or “you held C longest” means the tool used that note as a hint for the key’s starting note. Choosing a home note yourself replaces the hint.
- Same notes as: two scales with exactly the same notes, such as C major and A natural minor. Your notes cannot tell them apart; only the home note can.
- The verdict line says how many scales contain all your notes. If it is many, sing more different notes. If none, some notes may be passing notes, out of tune, or from a scale the tool does not list.
How the Scale Matching Works
About 30 times a second the tool measures the pitch of your voice with YIN, a standard pitch-detection method, and turns it into a note name in standard tuning (A4 = 440 Hz). A note counts when you hold it within 60 cents for a quarter of a second, so slides and quick passing notes are left out. The octave does not matter for a scale, so C3 and C4 both count as C.
It then compares your notes with 72 scales: 6 scale types in each of the 12 keys. Each scale gets a score:
- the share of your singing time that falls on the scale’s notes (each held note counts for at most 2 seconds),
- minus a small amount for each scale note you did not sing, so the most specific scale that fits comes first,
- plus a small bonus when the scale starts on your home note: the last note you held and the note you held longest, or the home note you chose,
- minus a small amount for harmonic minor and blues, so they come first only when you sing their own notes (the raised 7th or the blue note).
If all your notes are sharp or flat by about the same amount, for example 40 cents flat, the tool names them relative to your own tuning and tells you so, instead of splitting your notes between two neighbouring note names.
What Is a Scale, and What Is a Key?
A scale is a set of notes in a fixed pattern of steps, starting from a home note called the tonic. A half step (semitone) is the distance from one key on a piano to the very next one; a whole step is two half steps. The key of a song names its tonic and its scale: a song in G major uses mostly the notes of the G major scale and feels at rest on G. If you need a refresher on note names and octaves, see the vocal range notes chart.
| Scale | Notes | Steps (semitones) | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major | 7 | 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 | C D E F G A B |
| Natural minor | 7 | 2-1-2-2-1-2-2 | A B C D E F G |
| Harmonic minor | 7 | 2-1-2-2-1-3-1 | A B C D E F G# |
| Major pentatonic | 5 | 2-2-3-2-3 | C D E G A |
| Minor pentatonic | 5 | 3-2-2-3-2 | A C D E G |
| Blues | 6 | 3-2-1-1-3-2 | A C D Eb E G |
Major vs Minor Scales
The major and natural minor scales use the same seven-note pattern started from different places. C major and A natural minor contain exactly the same notes; the difference is which note feels like home. That is why the tool often lists a major scale and its relative minor together, and why the home note matters.
The harmonic minor raises the 7th note of the natural minor by a half step (G to G# in A minor), which pulls strongly back to the tonic. If you sing that raised note, the tool will rank harmonic minor above natural minor. The melodic minor is not in the list; if you sing it, the closest listed scales appear instead.
Pentatonic and Blues Scales
Pentatonic scales have five notes. The major pentatonic is the major scale without its 4th and 7th notes; the minor pentatonic is the natural minor without its 2nd and 6th. With no half steps between them, these notes are easy to sing and are used in many folk songs, riffs and vocal runs. The blues scale is the minor pentatonic plus one extra note, the flattened 5th (Eb in A blues), often called the blue note.
Because a pentatonic scale sits inside several larger scales, five notes such as C D E G A fit C major pentatonic, A minor pentatonic, C major, G major, F major and more. The tool ranks the pentatonic first when you sang all five notes and nothing else, and shows the others below with their counts.
Why Several Scales Can Fit Your Notes
- Relative major and minor share every note, so only the home note separates them.
- Few different notes fit many scales. Four notes such as C D E G fit nine of the 72 scales. The seven notes of one major scale fit only that scale and its relative minor.
- Modes such as Dorian or Mixolydian use the notes of a major scale from a different home note. The tool does not rank modes separately; D Dorian, for example, shows up as C major or A natural minor, because it has the same notes.
- Songs that change key or borrow notes will fit no scale completely. Check a single section at a time.
How Singers Can Use the Result
- Find the key of a song you are learning: sing its melody (the chorus is often enough) and see which scale fits. Then you can tell a pianist or a karaoke app the key.
- Practise the scale: press Play scale, then sing it back up and down. Singing the notes of a song’s scale is a simple way to tune your ear to it before you sing the song. Add it to your vocal warm-ups.
- Improvise or write a melody: use only the notes the tool lists and your line will stay in key.
- Check a scale exercise: sing a major scale and see whether all seven notes land in one scale, or whether one note drifted into its neighbour.
- Choosing a key that suits your voice is a different question: it depends on your range and where your voice sits most comfortably, your tessitura. For that, see songs for your vocal range.
Limits of This Tool
- One voice at a time. It follows a single melody line. It cannot find the key of a recording with backing music or of chords; sing the melody instead.
- A shortlist, not a verdict. Several scales often fit the same notes. The ranking uses your home note as a hint, which can be wrong if a phrase ends away from the tonic.
- Needs enough notes. At least 4 different notes, each held for about a quarter of a second. Very fast runs are not counted.
- Six scale types only, in standard Western tuning (12 equal steps per octave, A4 = 440 Hz). Modes, melodic minor and non-Western scales are not listed.
- Noise and breath can hide notes. Sing in a quiet room, with the phone or microphone about an arm’s length away.
Microphone and Privacy
The sound is analysed in your browser as it arrives. The tool does not record, upload or save your voice and sends nothing to a server. Your notes exist only on the open page and are gone when you reload or close it. The microphone switches off when you press Stop, or after 90 seconds. Read the privacy policy and how our tests measure pitch for the whole site.
Vocal Scale Finder FAQ
What scale am I singing?
Sing at least 4 different notes and read the first scale under Scales that fit your notes. If it says “fits 7 of 7 notes”, every note you sang is in that scale. Check the scales below it too: several scales can share the same notes.
What key am I singing in?
The key is the best-fitting scale plus its home note. Sing the melody through to its last note, or set the home note yourself, and the first result names the likely key, for example G major or E minor.
Why does it show C major and A minor for the same notes?
They contain the same seven notes. Only the note that feels like home separates them, so the tool lists both and ranks them by the last and longest note you sang.
How many notes do I need to sing?
At least 4 different notes. Four notes such as C D E G fit nine scales; the seven notes of a major scale fit only two (the major scale and its relative minor). Singing the same note many times does not help; singing more different notes does.
Can it find the key of a song from a recording?
No. It listens to one voice or one instrument at a time, not to a full mix. Sing or hum the song’s melody into it instead.
Does it detect modes like Dorian or Mixolydian?
Not separately. A mode uses the notes of a major scale from a different home note, so it appears as that major scale or its relative minor.
Can I use it without a microphone?
Yes. Tap the notes under Your notes to enter them by hand, and the matching scales appear the same way.
Is my voice recorded or uploaded?
No. Sound is analysed in your browser as you sing and is not recorded, uploaded or stored by the tool.