Key Explorer

What is the Key Explorer?

A scale narrows the available notes down to a particular selection of tones. Depending on the key, certain notes are therefore left out. A chord is a bundle of tones spaced at specific distances within the scale – the intervals. A major chord, for example, consists of the root, the major third (4 semitones) and the fifth (7 semitones). On the keyboard the same chord forms the same shape pattern from every root.

You can choose a root below. The matching notes of the scale can then be shown on the keyboard. On top of that, the chords built on the selected root can be highlighted. (red the root, yellow the third, blue the remaining chord tones). The Major/Minor switch next to the root lets you swap between a major and a minor third.

You can also change the key using the circle of fifths below the keyboard. This is a good way to explore how the notes shift between closely related keys.

Pick a root and a chord to see and hear the pattern. Sound is switched off to begin with – set it to “On” above to hear the notes.

Scales

A scale is an ordered sequence of tones within an octave that follows a fixed series of intervals. It is not the individual note names that make up a scale, but the distances between the tones – and it is exactly these intervals that the explorer above makes visible step by step.

Because this pattern stays the same from every root, on the guitar every key produces the same shape pattern – just at a different spot on the fretboard. Once you have internalised the distances of a scale, you will find it again anywhere on the neck.

The notes of a scale give rise to the fitting chords and melodies of a piece. That is why understanding scales is the key to recognising the connections on the fretboard.