When playing a chord sequence, you may want to know what scale it is using.
Once you know the scale, it is easier to add more chords to the progression or compose a melody for it. It also tells you what notes you should use for improvisation over the chord sequence.
Let's say we are playing a song using the chords Cmaj, Am, Fmaj and G7. This occurs in many songs and is known as a "turnaround".
Step-By-Step
Step 1
To identify the scale of our chord sequence, we are going to use one of the workspace tools, the Chords To Scales window. We can open this with the following command:
| Button | Menu |
| Tools-Chords to Scales |
Step 2
The Chords To Scales window appears on top of the workspace. The Chords list at the left will contain the chords in our sequence.
We add each chord individually by pressing the Add >> button, to open a popup chord matrix as shown.
Each cell in the matrix represents the chord based on the chord type in the row heading and the root note in the column heading.
So, we first need to select the cell in the C column and the maj row. The Cmaj chord then appears in the Chord list.
Step 3
Repeat for the other three chords Am, Fmaj and G7. The Chords list should now appear as shown.
Step 4
As soon as the chords are entered, the Scales list at the right shows us the scales which are related to these chords. Each scale is ranked with a percentage, as shown, indicating many chords in the sequence are related to each scale.
The best scale choices appear at the top with higher percentages. In this case, the C Major scale is the best choice because it is related to 100% (all four) of the chords we entered.
Other scales are also showing with lesser percentages. The next scale is F Major, which is not such a good choice because it is only related to 75% (three of the four) of the chords we entered.
It is useful to see these extra scales, because they give you an idea of which scales are similar to each other, and sometimes, there is no perfect choice, depending on which chords you have entered.
See Also
