Twelve TheoryMath + Music Playground

Explore interactive music theory and music by numbers through Free Play, Math Mode, Chord Game, Circle Counting, the Triad Chart, Chord Progressions, Church Modes, the Counterpoint Game, WTC, Dodecachordon, Harmonic Cone, the Harmonics Quiz, Frequency Chart, Harmonic Wave, Waveforms, Harmonic Polygons, Tuning String, Sheet Music, Musical Circles, and Ear Training.

Composition training

Mirror Melody

Stay in 1 - C major. Start on the same note and reverse each movement by the same number of scale steps.

Scale steps count only notes in the chosen key. +1 can be one or two piano-key moves. Note numbers always mean 1=C through 12=B.

1 / 8 · A small arch

Original melody

1
1C4
2
3D4
3
5E4
4
6F4
5
5E4
6
3D4
7
1C4
+1+1+1−1−1−1

Your mirror

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
——————

Choose note 2. Tap an answer box to change it. The first note stays fixed.

OctaveEntering C4–B4

Only notes in 1 - C major are available. Use octave 3 for lower notes and octave 5 for higher notes. C4 is middle C.

Hear your melody at any time. Each note keeps the rhythm of the original phrase.
How to mirror a tonal phrase

These short phrases start and finish on the tonic, sometimes in another octave. They use steps and chord-based leaps, and hold the final note longer. Reflection is a way to develop a musical idea; staying in a scale alone does not guarantee good harmony.

In C major, C4 → D4 → E4 goes up two scale steps. Its scale mirror is C4 → B3 → A3. In your numbers: 1 (C4) → 3 (D4) → 5 (E4) becomes 1 (C4) → 12 (B3) → 10 (A3).

An exact mirror of C4 → D4 → E4 instead gives C4 → B♭3 → A♭3: both piano-key moves are −2. That can suggest a different key. Use the method selector to compare.

Read left to right. Repeated notes stay repeated. Watch the octave label: 1 (C3), 1 (C4), and 1 (C5) are different pitches. Odd numbers are blue; even numbers are pink.

Keyboard: 1–9 enter those numbers; 0 enters 10, − enters 11, and = enters 12. O/P change octave. Backspace removes the last note.

Downloadable worksheets

Each download generates 8 fresh questions, instructions, a worked example, and a matching answer key.

Level 1 reverses piano-key distances within one octave. Level 2 mirrors scale steps in 1 - C major, using the key selected above, and includes octave changes.

Note labels: Numbers (follows the Letter names toggle above).

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