C Major Pentatonic
Five-note major scale, great for melodies · Formula 1 2 3 5 6
Filled notes are yours. The rest of the scale adds A.
C Major Pentatonic has 5 notes, so it has no triads of its own — you cannot stack thirds seven times through 5 notes. These are the chords of C Major (Ionian), the scale it is cut from.
How to Use
- 1Type the notes you are playing, or tap them on the note picker. Order matters a little: the tool treats the note you list first as the likely home note when two scales are otherwise tied.
- 2Results are ranked by how tightly they fit. A scale with no extra notes sits above one that adds three, so a five-note pentatonic often leads a four-note input.
- 3Pick a scale to see its notes — yours filled in, the rest of the scale outlined — plus its seven chords with Roman numerals. Click a chord to hear it, double-click for the finger diagram.
- 4"Modes of the same parent" is where the theory pays off: those six scales contain exactly the notes you typed, so any of them fits. Which one is right depends on which note your music resolves to.
- 5If nothing fits exactly, open "Off by one note" — one accidental in your input, or one passing note that was never in the key, is the usual reason.
About the Guitar Scale Finder
Guitar Tool Hub's free scale finder works backwards from the notes. Type or tap the notes you are playing — a riff, a lick, a melody, a set of notes you found on the fretboard — and it returns every scale that contains them, ranked by how tightly each one fits. Selecting a result shows the scale's full note set with your own notes filled in, its seven diatonic chords with Roman numerals, the relative and parallel keys, and the modes built from the same parent scale. Every chord is playable and every diagram is one click away.
- 01Searches 84 scales — 7 scale types across all 12 roots
- 02Ranked by fit: fewest extra notes first, so the tightest scale leads
- 03Notes spelled properly — A harmonic minor reads A B C D E F G♯, never G♭
- 04Diatonic chords with Roman numerals for every seven-note result
- 05Click any chord to hear it, double-click for the finger diagram
- 06Relative and parallel keys, plus the modes of the same parent scale
- 07"Off by one note" near misses when nothing fits exactly
- 08Free, in the browser, no account needed