Make the game useful
Compare every pitch with the named tonic’s major scale. One chromatic outsider is included; the other choices belong to the collection.
Start at level one and change only one setting at a time. Listen before choosing a response, compare the feedback with the notes and try the same puzzle again when a mistake reveals something uncertain. Five first-attempt successes at one level suggest trying the next level, but every level is available from the start.
Practice mode creates a new question each time. The daily mode uses your device’s calendar date and chosen level to make a repeatable puzzle. Optional saving remembers stars and adds supported first answers to the local progress dashboard. It requires no account and does not synchronize between browsers. A score describes this small task, not your ability to perform a whole piece.
Wrong-note detective practice guide
Claude-assisted guide · checked against this game
This guide explains how to find the one chromatic outsider in a displayed major-scale collection by comparing every pitch against the named tonic's major scale, and it offers an exercise you can apply at the piano or within the Wrong-note detective game.
What the game asks you to hear
Each puzzle names a tonic, such as C or G, and shows a set of pitches that should belong to that tonic's major scale. One pitch is a chromatic outsider: it is a half step away from a scale tone and therefore does not fit. Your job is to identify that single note. The other choices all belong to the major-scale collection. The skill being trained is the ability to hold a scale in mind and notice when one pitch sits just outside it, rather than simply recognizing a melody.
Build the reference scale first
Before judging the collection, write out the major scale of the named tonic using the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern. For C major the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B. For G major the notes are G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp. For F major the notes are F, G, A, B flat, C, D, E. Keeping this reference in view makes the comparison concrete. Many listeners find it helpful to sing or play the scale once slowly before examining the puzzle, so the expected sound is fresh.
Compare each pitch against the scale
Work through the collection one note at a time and ask whether each pitch is a member of the reference scale. Suppose the tonic is C and the collection contains C, E, G, A, and F sharp. Every note except F sharp is in C major; F sharp is a half step above F and a half step below G, so it is the outsider. A useful habit is to check the notes that sit close to scale tones, because chromatic outsiders are usually adjacent to a scale degree. If the tonic is D and the collection contains D, F sharp, A, C, and E, the C is the outsider, since D major uses C sharp rather than C natural.
Using the game in practice
The Wrong-note detective game lets you choose from five difficulty levels, play a daily seeded puzzle, replay the sound with Listen, ask for a hint with Show a hint, and start over with Retry this puzzle. You can click the C4 to C6 keys to answer. Hints or mistakes prevent a clean star, so use hints as a learning aid rather than a shortcut, and notice which scale degrees you tend to misjudge. Other games in the collection ask for a single-note answer, while the Memory game asks you to reproduce a sequence of three to seven notes in order, without any timing assessment. The skills overlap: both rely on keeping pitch relationships clear in memory.