I wrote a little program to help myself learn the different degrees of the notes of each of the 12 musical keys. These would be the actual note names of the old Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do Solfège for a given musical key. The program randomly picks a key and scale degree and asks the user to pick the radio button corresponding to the correct response. The actual notes of each scale are not hard-coded into the program. Intervals of the chromatic scale are used to compute them when a question is randomly chosen.
The program:
The correct answer below would be “D” as the A major scale contains the notes A, B, C#, D, E, F#, and G#. The fourth note is “D”. Chords are constructed with the different scale degrees, for example, a plain major chord consists of the Root(first note), the Third(third note), and the Fifth(fifth note), or the A, C# and E notes for an “A” chord. All chords are constructed using rules of combinations of notes based on scale degrees. Knowing them will allow a musician, or even a hack like me, to construct chords of any type, in any key. Here is a screenshot of this simple, but effective program:
It works just like a deck of flash cards. I have found it to be a pretty effective way to help learn the notes of each key. You get one point for a correct answer and minus one point for an incorrect answer, but it does not let you get a negative score. If you have any interest in basic music theory, give it a try with the link below, if not, thanks for reading this until the end.
note: For those of you with OCD, you may have become uncomfortable due to some misalignment in the quiz display. Sincere apologies-it has been corrected.