Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Piano Scales? There’s an App For That!

As our children move into middle and high school and take specialized classes, it’s more common for homework assignments to move beyond our parental comfort zones of expertise. That was the case tonight with my 7th grade son, who is taking an introductory piano course all year at his public magnet school, Classen SAS of Oklahoma City Public Schools. His assignment tonight was writing down the notes of different five finger scale sequences. He got stuck on D sharp minor. I took some vocal music classes in high school and one year of VERY basic piano my senior year in college, so this was certainly outside my areas of academic and fine arts expertise. Google searches didn’t yield webpages which helped, and neither did searches for YouTube videos. That’s when I turned to my iPad and the iTunes App Store. Is there an app that can help with piano scale fingering sequences? Absolutely. It is a $4 app called Music Tool Universal.


A free light version is also available, but time was short before bedtime and I figured we could spring for the $4 app. Of the other options available, it was the highest rated with the most ratings.


I am so glad we went with the Music Tool app. We were able to select the minor scale, choose the keys we needed, and have the app play those scales as well as show (at the top of the screen) the individual notes which comprise the scale.


Tonight, my iPad helped me provide my son with academic and fine arts assistance far beyond my own limited abilities… Thanks to the Music Tools app. I’m overjoyed that when it comes to musical scales, “Yes – There’s an app for that!”

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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One response to “Piano Scales? There’s an App For That!”

  1. Daphne L Avatar

    Howdy Wes!
    You are that super duper dad! Thank you for sharing this dynamic app. I love it!
    I have found that Ricci Adams’s Music Theory.net website is also an amazing resource. I really appreciate his step by step lessons for musical theory.
    So not sure it would assist your son, but check it out: http://www.musictheory.net/
    See you in cyberspace, Daphne