ScaleMate - Visualize Harmony 4+
Understand Music Scales Deeply
Anton Schwartz
Designed for iPad
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- $3.99
Screenshots
Description
ScaleMate is the master scale tool for musicians and educators.
It lets you visualize scales in ways that make their important qualities leap out at you.
ScaleMate is a reference that shows you & plays for you any scale you wish…. But that's just the beginning. ScaleMate helps you hear & understand scales and harmony more deeply than ever before… by teaching you to visualize scales in ways that match what they sound like.
Imagine… Wouldn't it be nice to have a single image for all the modes of the major scale?
Ever wonder why the modes are ordered so oddly, hopping between major & minor & dominant?
Or notice that the Altered Scale is the "darkest", most minor sounding of all possible dominant scales?
Or that its tritone-substitution, the Lydian Dominant Scale, is the "brightest" of them all?
Ever notice that the minor pentatonic scale is a mode of the major pentatonic scale and wonder whether there were any other useful pentatonic modes?
Ever notice that the major pentatonic scale (and its modes) are the only 5-note scale that doesn't contain any half steps or tritones?
ScaleMate shows you scales in a way that makes these observations quite natural and immediate… and plays you the results too.
FEATURES
• USE IT RIGHT AWAY
Try ScaleMate right now! Built-in help is there for you whenever you want it.
• LISTEN
ScaleMate lets you hear what scales sound like, by playing them up & down, or by playing endless melodies that use them.
• VISUALIZE WHAT YOU HEAR
ScaleMate shows every scale both linearly (for melodic understanding) and on the circle of fifths (for harmonic understanding).
• FULL LIBRARY OF SCALES
ScaleMate knows all the scales you're ever likely to encounter.
• A WELLSPRING OF KNOWLEDGE
Extensive information pages on 40+ of the most common & important scales.
• USE IT TO TEACH!
ScaleMate is perfect for projecting on a screen or sharing over zoom while you teach. Its animations let you show how one scale transforms into another, and it has special features (pointing, hiding/revealing) for educators.
• AUTOMATIC SCALE RECOGNITION
Build your own scales and ask yourself "what if I make this change…" Whenever you produce a common scale, ScaleMate will automatically identify & title it.
• ANIMATED IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES
Change between one scale and another and see the differences between them, visually animated before you.
• SMART SPELLING
ScaleMate notates perfectly, for every scale in every key.
• NOTE ROLES
Next to each note, ScaleMate displays its function—in numbers (3, 5, b7) or in solfege (Mi, Sol, Te) or not at all, according to your preference.
• SIMPLE OR ADVANCED NOTATION
ScaleMate shows you double flats and double sharps whenever they're called for… unless you'd rather see simplified note names. Prefer never to see notes like Cb and E# either? You can have ScaleMate show them as B and F.
• DIMINISHED HARMONY
Choose the option to color the notes in three colors so you can see which diminished seventh chord every note belongs to. Great for understanding diminished scales & chords and seeing how they relate to other scales too.
• JAZZ CRED
ScaleMate is created by Anton Schwartz. An award-winning saxophonist and composer as well as an expert educator, he is the creator of the highly rated RANDOM ROOTS app.
Terms and conditions: https://scalemate.app/terms-conditions
Privacy policy: https://scalemate.app/privacy
What’s New
Version 2.1
• NEW: Animations for when note added/removed from scale. Especially useful for teaching.
• IMPROVED: Many additions to the scale descriptions & reference.
• FIXED: Scale titles were sometimes needlessly truncated.
Ratings and Reviews
Wow! Game changer.
Oh wow, this new app is fantastic! Maybe it’s just me, but at first blush it seemed like a beefed up version of the education setting in iRealPro, but after using it a bit, it’s so much more powerful and useful than that. I love being able to both see and hear the chord I’m working on, and each chord is laid out several different ways in one view, which makes for a really appealing way to experience the harmony you’re into at the moment.
Lots to love about this app, but to my surprise, my favorite thing is actually the note randomizer function - because a scale is only one way to play the notes of a chord! Just sit back, and listen to a computer play all the right notes, haha. Seriously though - listening to it and watching it for a while on one chord is already helping connect my ear to the harmony in ways that just hearing the notes in alphabetical order never could. Coming from a classical music background, I can already tell this is going to be a game-changer for my ability to hear jazz harmony. They say there’s no shortcut, you just have to listen - but I disagree. Now you can see it, too! :-) Thanks so much!!!
Developer Response ,
Thank you, Fiddlegrl! What a delightful surprise to receive your review as ScaleMate’s very first! There’ll be plenty more features coming - I can’t wait to hear what you think. Please keep me posted with your reactions and let me know if you encounter any issues.
Such a great tool!!
I’m getting so much use from this terrific app. If you’re looking for help in demystifying some of the important scales used in jazz, this app will help do exactly that.
The app has many, many scales embedded in it, you can make changes to a degree in a scale and the app will identify what scale that is (if any). Importantly, this app will give you the keys to fundamental jazz harmony. Something I certainly need, and greater understanding in how they work together. I believe it’s improving my playing as I grasp more of the fundamentals that have been lacking.
This is developed by a very dedicated jazz educator and elite horn player which explains why it’s so practical.
I keep it open at my piano as I work through 2/5/1 exercises. Check out diminished coloring which is of great use. You can see how they hide out almost everywhere!
This app will catch on soon, trust me. I’m glad I have it now at this excellent price point
See you later! Time to get to the piano with my new friend ScaleMate... can’t wait!
Superlative Theory-Training Tool
Consistent drilling with this easy-to-use app will deepen your understanding of scale components, qualities, functions, unique properties, and commonalities.
Such drilling will be painless (which is not to say “effortless”) and it’s addictive in that fun, spanky way that keeps you coming back for more because you know it’s making you a stronger musician.
ScaleMate trains by providing simple but powerful visual imagery in a broad, highly-customizable range of scale-related contexts. A student can immediately begin mentally associating this imagery with principles governing both scale and harmony, as well as with the audio that will help cement comprehension of concepts.
Everything ScaleMate says it does—it does. Lucky for us!
The individual features of the app are many, and truly breathtaking considering the price I paid for the full version.
Well-conceived app; lovely to use; responsive developer, if you’ve got questions or concerns...
...What’s to lose by giving it a try?
App Privacy
The developer, Anton Schwartz, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Anton Schwartz
- Size
- 55.6 MB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 14.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
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English
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2020-2021 Anton Schwartz
- Price
- $3.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.