Musical scale calculator

For the musicians out there, here’s a device that shows you what notes are in a scale, given a root note and a diatonic mode. It has seven settings for all of the modes from ionian (major) to locrian.

It’s like a circle of fifths, but more convoluted because it has moving parts :slight_smile:

You turn the outer ring to choose the mode; when the “1” (1st scale note) is visible through the window, the mode next to that window is selected. E.g. if you can see a “1” through the window labeled “vi”, mode vi (aeolian/minor) is selected. You then turn the inner ring to line up a note with the “1”, and the notes in the scale will line up with numbers 2-7 in other windows.

I also made a linear version that slides instead of rotating, which I find a little easier to read.

ScaleCalculators.zip (38.4 KB)

edit: added dotted lines to show where pieces line up

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Thanks for sharing this - I never knew such a thing existed.

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You lost me not far after diatonic but I like what you did.

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Oh this is so cool! I might just whip one up—thank you so much!

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Oh this brings back my Music Theory days! :slight_smile:

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Yeah what @markevans36301 said.

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I would confuse Diatonic with mixing gin and rum with soda, but the gadget is super cool.

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Great idea, wonderfully executed! Thanks for the share.

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oh must make, this is fab, thank you for sharing!

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@dklgood I tried finding something similar online, but couldn’t find one anywhere. I came up with the design myself :slight_smile: