Welcome to ScaleMaster

This documentation is for ScaleMaster 2, the fantastic new upgrade to the venerable ScaleMaster app. It has been re-designed from the ground up with a very modern interface and includes a lot of new functionality like scale documents, much improved MIDI support, scrollable instruments, full screen mode and much more.

Scales are at the center of much of what we are practicing on our instruments. Most of us start out with a one-octave major scale and then slowly graduate to more octaves, scale types and different scale patterns. And there is a lot of ground to cover especially for those playing a string instrument. That is because there are so many different fingerings. In any case it is always good to have a great reference handy. ScaleMaster to the rescue :]

Of course we don't just want to look up the location of those notes, but want to incorporate things into our practice schedule as well. That is where scale exercises come in. Exercises are new in ScaleMaster 2 and like most everything else part of a scale document. So if a guitar player for example is interested in an Ab Mixolydian scale, the best way to go about it is to create a new document, set it up for Ab Mixolydian and then have ScaleMaster create an exercise. When playing back that exercise ScaleMaster highlights the fingering and of course lets you adjust the speed. We'll have a whole chapter on exercises a bit later and will even show you how to record your own custom exercise.

What makes ScaleMaster really stand out is of course its support of music notation including double sharps or flats and indication of halftone (semitone) steps. Other things ScaleMaster can do include changing clefs, global transposition and of course adjusting the tuning of string instruments. There are also over 200 built-in instrument sounds and virtual MIDI is supported as well, so you can run it through your DAW as well. It also supports Family Sharing and nine instruments as of this writing (Banjo, Bass, Cello, Double Bass, Guitar, Mandolin, Piano, Viola, Violin).

Now that we have a general idea of what ScaleMaster is about, let's go ahead and take a look at some of the specifics. We'll begin with the basic layout of the app, then move to scales, instruments and more.