HearmonyScale Degree Names: What Each Degree Sounds Like
The seven scale degree names are tonic (1), supertonic (2), mediant (3), subdominant (4), dominant (5), submediant (6) and leading tone (7). In C major that is C, D, E, F, G, A and B, or do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti in solfège. Each degree has its own feeling against the home note, and learning that feeling is how you start to hear melodies as numbers instead of random notes.
What are the 7 scale degree names?
Every note of a major scale has a number and a name that describes its job in the key. The table below lists all seven in C major, with the solfège syllable and the "pull" each degree has when you hear it over the tonic.
| Degree | Name | Solfège | In C major | How it feels over the tonic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tonic | do | C | Home. Completely at rest. |
| 2 | Supertonic | re | D | Passing, slightly restless; wants to step down to do or up to mi. |
| 3 | Mediant | mi | E | Stable and sweet; the note that makes the key sound major. |
| 4 | Subdominant | fa | F | Hangs in the air; leans down a half step to mi. |
| 5 | Dominant | sol | G | Strong and open, a second resting point; pulls back to do. |
| 6 | Submediant | la | A | Soft and a little wistful; often falls to sol. |
| 7 | Leading tone | ti | B | The most unstable note; it needs to rise a half step to do. |
The eighth note, C again, is the tonic an octave higher. You will see it written as 8 or as a 1 with a caret, but it is the same degree.
Why do the scale degrees have those names?
The names describe where each degree sits relative to the tonic and the dominant. Once you see the pattern, you never have to memorize them as a list.
- Dominant is the fifth degree, the note that "dominates" the key after the tonic.
- Subdominant is the "lower dominant": F is a fifth below C, just as G is a fifth above.
- Mediant is the midpoint between tonic and dominant (E sits between C and G).
- Submediant is the midpoint on the way down from tonic to subdominant (A sits between C and the F below it).
- Supertonic simply means "above the tonic".
- Leading tone is named for what it does: it leads into the tonic, a half step above.
So the 5th scale degree is the dominant, and the 4th is the subdominant. Those two plus the tonic carry most of the harmony in pop, folk and classical music, which is why the I, IV and V chords get so much attention.
What's the difference between scale degrees and solfège?
Scale degrees and movable-do solfège describe the same thing with different labels: numbers (1 to 7) versus singable syllables (do to ti). In movable do, "do" is always the tonic of whatever key you are in, so 5 is sol in C major (G) and sol in D major (A).
Fixed do is different. In fixed do, used in much of Europe and Latin America, "do" always means the note C, so the syllables name letters, not degrees. If you are training your ear, movable do or numbers are the useful system, because they describe how a note functions, not its absolute pitch. Our guide to relative pitch explains why that relationship to home matters so much more than the letter name.
Scale degrees are also not the same as intervals. An interval measures the distance between any two notes; a scale degree measures one note's distance from the tonic. Mi is always a major third above do, but you hear it as "3", a specific color in the key, not as a gap.
What is the leading tone, and what is the subtonic?
The leading tone is the seventh degree when it sits a half step below the tonic, like B in C major. That half step is the strongest pull in tonal music: play C D E F G A B and stop, and almost everyone feels the scale is unfinished.
"Happy Birthday" shows it clearly. The first line, sol sol la sol do ti ("Happy birthday to you"), ends on ti and sounds like a question. The second line ends sol sol la sol re do and lands home.
In natural minor, the seventh degree is a whole step below the tonic, and it is called the subtonic instead. In A natural minor (A B C D E F G), G is the subtonic. Composers often raise it to G♯ in harmonic minor to get a true leading tone back, which is why so many minor-key pieces have that sharp near the end of a phrase.
How do you hear scale degrees?
You hear scale degrees by keeping the tonic in your head and noticing how each new note feels against it. The method that works for most people is a drone plus a few melodies you already know.
Anchor each degree with a melody
- 1–5: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" opens do do sol sol la la sol (1 1 5 5 6 6 5).
- 3–2–1: "Mary Had a Little Lamb" opens mi re do re mi mi mi (3 2 1 2 3 3 3).
- 8 down to 1: "Joy to the World" walks down the whole scale: do ti la sol fa mi re do.
- 5 below 1, and 7: "Happy Birthday" starts on sol below the tonic and climbs to do and ti.
A 5-minute drone exercise
- Play and hold a low C (a keyboard with sustain, a drone track or an open string tuned to C). This is do.
- Play one note of the C major scale over it, slowly, and name the degree out loud before you think about the letter.
- Describe what you hear in one word: resting, leaning, bright, tense. Use the table above as a starting point, then trust your own words.
- Resolve every unstable note: ti up to do, fa down to mi, re down to do, la down to sol. Hearing the resolution is half of hearing the degree.
- Finish with a self-test: play a random note over the drone, guess the degree, then check. Ten guesses a day is enough.
Start with only 1, 3 and 5 (do, mi, sol), the notes of the home chord. Once those are automatic, add one neighbor at a time: re, then fa, then la, then ti. The stable notes stay as landmarks while each new degree finds its place between them.
Common mistakes when learning scale degrees
Most trouble comes from losing the tonic, not from the degrees themselves. These are the usual traps and their fixes.
- Naming letters instead of degrees. If you think "that's a G", you are using pitch memory. Say "sol" or "5" first, and practice in more than one key so the letter can't help you.
- Confusing 4 and 5. Both sound open over the tonic. Fa leans down toward mi; sol feels like it could end a phrase. Play each one and ask "could the song stop here?"
- Confusing 6 and 5. La often sounds like a decoration of sol. Listen for the drop: in "Twinkle, Twinkle", la la sol is la stepping back down to its neighbor.
- Losing home after a key change. Hum the tonic before every guess. If you can't hum it, replay it.
Hearing degrees also makes it much easier to tell what key a song is in, because finding do is the first step of that job.
Practice scale degrees in Hearmony
Hearmony trains scale degrees in solfège in its Home Key Harbor adventure: four chords (I–IV–V–I) set the key, one note plays, and you name it as 1 · Do, 2 · Re, 3 · Mi and so on. The lessons start with do, mi and sol and add re, fa, la and ti one at a time, in short 10-question rounds that fit next to the drone exercise above. You can set note names to letters or solfège in Settings, and the Daily Ear Workout mixes scale degrees with the other skills from the beginner ear training plan. Hearmony is an iPhone app; you can find it on the App Store.
For the terms themselves, including the caret notation (a small ^ over each number) used in theory classes, see the reference entry on scale degrees.