Free guitar Scales Reference 16 scale types · 12 keys · printable diagrams

Bright, resolved, optimistic — the default sound of Western pop, folk and most children's music.

Melancholy, introspective, serious — but not desperately sad. The classic "minor key" sound.

The major scale with the 4 and 7 removed — five notes that "always work" over a major chord. Sweet, melodic, never dissonant.

The scale that built rock and blues. Bluesy, plaintive, and easy to play in five connected positions across the neck.

Minor pentatonic plus the "blue note" (b5). Gritty, vocal, instantly recognisable as the blues.

Minor with a major 6th — darker than major, warmer than natural minor. Sophisticated, hopeful-melancholy.

Minor with a flat 2nd — exotic, Spanish, slightly menacing. The b2 is the defining sound.

Major with a raised 4th — dreamy, suspended, otherworldly. The sound of film-score wonder.

Major with a flat 7th — bright but bluesy. The "rock major scale".

The "weird one" — minor with both a flat 2nd and a flat 5th. Restless, dissonant, hard to resolve.

Natural minor with a raised 7th — creates the dramatic 1.5-step gap between b6 and 7. Classical, neo-classical, Middle-Eastern flavours.

Minor scale with a major 6th and 7th going up (jazz/ascending form). Sophisticated, slippery, modern.

Phrygian with a major 3rd — the iconic flamenco/Middle-Eastern sound. Major flavour, minor tension.

Two augmented seconds (between b3–#4 and b6–7) give this scale its distinctive Eastern European / Romani drama.

Six equally-spaced notes, no semitones — the symmetrical "dreamlike" scale. No clear tonic; ambiguous and weightless.

Traditional Japanese pentatonic — austere, contemplative, instantly evocative of koto music.