Scales are central to music. Intervals are central to scales. Tuning intervals is a complex process that must constantly be refined by the musician.
Scale Master was designed by professional musicians and educators and developed by experienced software consultants and is a tool providing transparency to intonation deficiencies so that tuning is faster and more accurate.
Through the use of "droning" sounds across various intervals, Scale Master provides a means of practicing intonation.
Who can use Scale-Master?
Musicians (Professional and Amateur) striving to further perfect their tuning ability
Student Musicians just starting to come to grips with the challenges of Just Intonation within the ensemble
Band, Orchestra and Choral Directors looking for a way to help their ensembles "HEAR" what "In Tune" is
Music Theory, Music Appreciation and General Music teachers wanting to demonstrate scales, intervals, patterns and intonation
How it works:
Using Equal Tempered tuning, select a root pitch and octave, then select the scale interval above the root pitch and select "Play". The generated droning sound will be a real-time interval based on Just Intonation producing the greatest resonance.
There are a total of 780 droning renderings available for the first release.
Beyond simple drones, you can also select a scale mode to display. The corresponding intervals will be high-lighted allowing easy, visual recognition of scale patterns. Scales included are:
Chromatic
Major
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Blues
Whole Tone
Major Pentatonic
Minor Pentatonic
There is also a scale "Auto-Play" function that will play the droning root and the corresponding scale interval in half notes at quarter=60bpm allowing the musician to work with tuning and harmonizing in real-time.
There are a total of 420 scale configurations available for the first release.
What Others are Saying:
"I think your app will be widely useful, better and more convenient than the typical tuner. It also will be a good companion tool for users of my 'Breakfast' Intonation practice booklet."
David Schwartz
"This new app looks wonderful to me, Gil!! A great teaching tool not only for trombonists but also for music theory and many more applications for musicians. Great idea!!"
Tom Senff - Trombone Professor and Trombonist with Stan Kenton Orchestra
"WOW! I like this a great deal. I teach AP Music theory. I think this would be tremendously helpful with drilling intervals."
Rob Optiz - High School Band Director
"When my students use this, they seem to adjust automatically in the correct direction."
Private Trombone Instructor
Users widely praise Scale-Master for its drone-driven ear training, easy, on-screen interface, and usefulness as a portable pitch pipe for both students and professionals. The main drawbacks mentioned are a lack of multi-octave scales (only one octave is currently supported, with frequent requests for two or more octaves) and occasional visual timing issues between the scale display and notes. Overall, it’s a powerful, free practice tool that many rely on, with a clear demand for feature improvements.
Pros
Effective drone-based tool for ear training and improving intonation.
Easy to use with a simple, one-screen interface.
Versatile for practice as a pitch pipe and useful for teachers and performers.
Free to use and provides robust drone functionality.
Cons
Lacks multi-octave scales; current support is limited to one octave, with repeated requests for two-octave/multi-octave scales.
Occasional visual timing issues between the scale display and notes.
Recent reviews
I’ve been using this app for years to practice intonation using slow scales. I only wish they could go even slower than half notes at 60.
byBi*****, 2025-08-21
As is it’s pretty useless. Plays only one octave. Good idea, but the developer evidently has pretty much abandoned the app anyway.
bygk*****, 2022-06-13
I’m very happy with this program because it does what I need it to do: figure out what key a song is in!