The Scale Degree Challenge: How to Find Any Note in a Scale Instantly

This one is more of a challenge than a lesson, but it’s going to do wonders for you in the long run.

I was working on a video this week about extended chords, ninths, elevenths and thirteenths. It got me thinking about an exercise I used to do with my students in the classroom when we focused on scales, intervals and scale degrees.

Fair warning up front: I know this is billed as a five minute lesson. This one is going to take you longer than five minutes.

Stop thinking in note names

Take a scale. Say position one of B major.

Now assign a scale degree to each one of those notes. Instead of thinking about it as B, C#, D#, E, F#, we think of it as numbers, because we already have the pattern ingrained in us.

Or at least you should. If you don’t, go practice your major scale first and come back.

So we count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Once we hit the octave, we keep going. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

By doing this, what we’re actually doing is mapping out the scale intervals.

• B is my root, my one
• C# is my second degree, or it could be my ninth
• D# is my third
• E is my fourth
• F# is my fifth

And so on up the neck.

Why numbers beat note names

This is worth being clear about, because it sounds like extra work for no reason.

Note names are specific to one key. Learn that the third of B major is D# and you’ve learned one fact that’s useful in exactly one key.

Scale degrees are the same in every key. The third is always the third. It always sits in the same place inside the shape, it always does the same job in a chord, and it always sounds the same way relative to the root.

So when you learn where the degrees are inside a shape, you learn it once and it transfers to all twelve keys immediately.

That’s the whole reason to bother. You’re trading a bit of discomfort now for not having to relearn anything ever again.

Why the numbers matter more than the names

Not only are we mapping the scale out, we’re also getting the basis of all our chord formulas.

If my major chord is a one, a three and a five, I can look at my scale, count 1, 3, 5, and know the notes of my B major chord are B, D# and F#.

Get into more complicated chords and it matters more. Say a thirteenth chord. I need to know where my one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven and thirteen are. And I need to know them quickly.

That’s what this exercise is for.

Why it keeps counting past 7

The numbers going to 15 confuses people, so here’s the logic.

The scale only has seven notes before it repeats. But chords keep stacking past seven, and when they do, we don’t start the count over.

Hit the octave and instead of calling it one again, you call it eight. Then nine, ten, eleven, and so on.

So a ninth is really the second, an octave up. An eleventh is the fourth, an octave up. A thirteenth is the sixth, an octave up.

That’s all those scary chord names mean. A thirteenth chord isn’t some exotic thing. It’s a chord with a note from the next octave stacked on top, and the number tells you exactly which one.

Fifteen is where you stop, because that’s two full octaves from your root.

The Random Number Game

This is a game I used to play with my students. I call it a game, but it’s really flash cards, the same way you had them in school.

Here’s how to run it.

• Get your phone out and go to Google
• Type in “random number generator”
• Set the minimum to 1, that’s your root note
• Set the maximum to 15, that’s the upper octave, which sits 15 steps away from your root
• Pick a scale, get comfortable with it, and start generating numbers

I got a 12. So I find my 12. Generate again, I get a 6. Where is that? There it is. Generate again, a 9. There’s my ninth.

When you’re first starting out it’s absolutely okay to count up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Nobody’s watching.

But the idea is to get comfortable and familiar with the position you’ve chosen, and be able to find those degrees quickly. Where’s my seven? My nine? My eleven? My ten? Fast.

A worked example, so you can see it

Let’s actually run a few so the idea is concrete. Position one of B major, root on the 7th fret of the low E string.

Number the shape as you go. Low E string: 7th fret is your 1, 9th is your 2, 11th is your 3. A string: 7th is your 4, 9th is your 5, 11th is your 6. And so on across the shape until you reach 15 at the top.

Now the generator says 6.

Beginner approach: count up from the root. One, two, three, four, five, six. Land on it.

Faster approach: you already know the 5 sits on the 9th fret of the A string, so the 6 is the next note in the scale, right there on the 11th.

Now it says 11.

Beginner: count eleven notes up. Slow, but it works.

Faster: 11 is 4 plus an octave. You know where the 4 is, so go there, then up an octave. Two moves instead of eleven.

Now it says 13.

Faster: 13 is 6 plus an octave. And you just found the 6 a minute ago.

See what’s happening? You’re not memorizing fifteen separate locations. You’re memorizing seven, and then learning to add an octave. That’s the shortcut that makes this fast, and it’s the thing that clicks somewhere in week two.

How to know you’re actually improving

The goal is speed, so give yourself something to measure.

At the start, you’ll count up from the root every single time. That’s fine and that’s the point of starting.

The first improvement is that you stop counting from one and start counting from a landmark. You know where the fifth is without thinking, so an eleven becomes “the fifth, plus an octave, minus a step” instead of eleven individual counts.

The second improvement is when you stop counting entirely and just see it. Somebody says nine and your finger goes there.

Two seconds is a good target. If you can find any degree in any position in about two seconds, you’re done and you can move to the next scale.

Do it in every position

Each one of these scales has five positions. You need to be able to do this in all of them.

Pick a key. I used B, and I started in position one. Then work through each of your positions and run the random number game in each one.

This can be done in major. It can be done in minor. It can even be done in modes like Dorian, Mixolydian and Lydian.

You should eventually have an idea of this sort of thinking for each scale, every key, and all five positions.

What this unlocks

Once you can do this, chord construction theory stops being scary.

You see a chord you’re not familiar with, something with a flat five. Well, there’s my five, so there’s my flat five. Easy. A sharp nine? Find the nine, go up one. A minor seventh? Find the seven, come down one.

Every chord symbol you’ve ever been intimidated by is a set of instructions written in these numbers. Once you can read the numbers on your fretboard, the symbols stop being code.

It also changes your soloing, because you stop hearing notes and start hearing functions. You’ll know the note you just landed on was the sixth, and you’ll know why it sounded the way it did.

Build a chord from the numbers

Once the degrees are quick, here’s the payoff exercise.

Pick a chord symbol. Say a major 9. The formula is 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.

Now find all five of those in your shape and play them, one at a time, then together if your hand can reach. You’ve just built a chord from theory rather than from a chord chart, and you know why every note is in there.

Try a minor 7 next. That’s 1, flat 3, 5, flat 7. Two of those need lowering by a half step, and now you know exactly which two and why.

Then a dominant 7. 1, 3, 5, flat 7. One flattened note, and that’s the entire difference between a major 7 and the chord that makes blues sound like blues.

Do that a few times and chord symbols stop being something you look up.

Common mistakes

• Counting frets instead of scale degrees. You’re counting notes in the scale, not semitones
• Doing it in one position only. Position one is the comfortable one. The other four are where the work is
• Skipping the numbers above 8. Those are the whole reason the exercise exists
• Changing keys too early. Get one key fast in all five positions before you move on
• Treating it as a one week thing. This is a five minutes a day habit that pays off over months

Start working on this and start thinking of your scales this way.

I promise, promise, promise, all it will do is help you in the long run.

If you’ve got questions, come find us in the community.