MusicReasonEar Training and Playable Exploration
Hear a tonic, then identify the scale degree
Hear a tonic followed by a target note from a chosen scale, then identify which scale degree the target was. This is a different skill from naming an interval: it is about hearing a note's role relative to an established tonal center.
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Session score: 0 correct / 0 answered
Want to learn more? Scales, Modes, and Tonal Centers
Understand
A scale degree and an interval describe related but distinct facts: the interval between tonic and target is a fixed relationship regardless of context, while the degree label (a "3rd scale degree," for example) only makes sense once a tonic and scale are established as the reference. This tool never claims a given degree carries a fixed emotional meaning on its own.
Worked example
In D major, scale degree 3 is F-sharp. A question built from D major might play D (the tonic) followed by F-sharp, and expect the answer "degree 3," revealed as the correct label only after you respond.
Method and limitations
Each question builds the selected scale from its tonic, then samples one degree from a seeded pseudorandom sequence restricted to whichever degrees you enabled; a restricted degree list is always honored exactly, never expanded silently. The target's label is withheld until you answer, so replaying the tonic and target cannot be used to guess from the label itself. No answer, degree, or pitch value enters analytics.
Why the tonic always plays first
A scale degree only means something relative to an established tonal center, so this drill always plays the tonic immediately before the target rather than the target alone. Hearing a note in isolation and hearing the same note anchored against its tonic are different listening tasks, and the second one is the actual skill scale-degree recognition depends on in real musical contexts.