Degrees

A key is established, then notes are played one at a time and you name each note's scale degree (1 through 7) relative to the tonic. Every so often a soft cadence announces a key change, and you must re-anchor to the new tonic to keep naming degrees correctly.

• Identify the degree (1-7, with solfege labels) of each prompted note
• A 'key change' tag and cadence warn you when the tonic moves
• Replay the note or hear the key again whenever you need; streaks raise your score

• Desktop: press 1-7 to answer, Space or R to replay the note; or use the on-screen pad and Hear key button
• Phone & tablet: tap the degree pad and the Replay / Hear key buttons

• Difficulty: Easy, Medium or Hard (more modulation)
• Daily for a shared session, Practice for fresh ones

• Sing the tonic to yourself and count up to the heard note rather than guessing
• When the cadence plays, reset your mental tonic before the next note arrives

Degrees is an ear-training game for functional listening, hearing notes as scale degrees within a shifting key.

• Skills: ear training, scale degrees, functional listening, tonality
• Best for: roughly grades 6–12 (ages 11+)
• For parents & teachers: hearing music functionally, by scale degree.

Naming each note's scale degree relative to an established tonic is functional listening: hearing a pitch by its role rather than by its name.

Announcing a key change with a soft cadence mid-round is the original wrinkle.

Degrees are relative, so a modulation silently renumbers everything — the note that was the fifth becomes the second, without changing pitch. Catching that is the whole point, and it is the foundation of relative pitch, which is the ear skill most musicians actually use.

Degrees is an ear-training game for functional listening, hearing notes as scale degrees within a shifting key. It is an original, free browser game built in-house for PlayPendium.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.