This application helps you master the fretboard by focusing on musical triads. While the core idea is to train your understanding of three-note chords, the app expands your learning to a true understanding of the fretboard and the harmonic space. You can select a key, a specific triad, and even add individual notes or suggested scales to visualize and hear different harmonic possibilities. The dynamic fretboard shows you exactly where each note lies, helping you to connect the abstract concepts of harmony with their physical locations on the guitar.
In building the app my focus was on providing a logical way to learn triads per key, and to build progressions from the triads, rather than just rote learning a bunch of shapes and positilons. Using the key-based approach provides (IMO!) for a deeper understanding of harmonic relationships, and promotes better voice-leading. Thus, for now, the focus is on major, minor and diminished triads that fit each diatonic key. This will probably be expanded in future to include augmented, sus, and open triads (my ultimate goal is to go 'full jazz').
How to Use
Key & Chord Selection: First, open the Options (☰) menu (top right) to select a Tuning. Then, select a musical Key from the main controls. The Chords buttons will automatically update to show the diatonic chords for that key.
Chord Selection: Click any Chord button to see its notes displayed on the fretboard.
Add Intervals: Use the Intervals buttons to add extra notes to the selected chord. These buttons are context-aware; for example, if you select a diminished chord (which has a diminished 5th), the 'd5' button will change to 'P5', allowing you to add a Perfect 5th.
Fretboard Options: Click the Options (☰) button to open the settings menu. Here you can change your Tuning, the number of Frets shown, the player View (Righty/Lefty), and toggle the note Colours (Polychrome/Monochrome).
Metronome: Use the Metronome controls to practice in time. Click the ► button to start or stop the click. The button will flash in time with the beat. Click the ☰ button next to it to open the settings panel, where you can adjust tempo, time signature, sound, and volume.
Note/Interval Display: Click anywhere on the coloured legend below the fretboard to switch the note display between note names and interval names. A tooltip will appear on hover.
Suggested Scales: The Suggested Scales list provides ideas for improvisation based on your selected notes. Clicking a scale displays all its notes on the fretboard.
Slide Suggestions: Once a scale is selected, the Slides menu will appear. Click the button to activate slide suggestions (the label will be underlined). You can then choose the slide direction (UP/DOWN) and a genre (Blues, Rock, Country, or Jazz).
Mute Strings: Click on any string's name (e.g., E, A, D) to the left of the fretboard to toggle its notes on and off.
Musical Rules & Design Rationale
Note Spelling and Key Signatures
The application's musical intelligence is built on a "rulebook" that contains the correctly spelled seven-note scale for every major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scale. This ensures all notes are displayed with their proper diatonic spelling (e.g., using `Bb` in the key of F Major, not `A#`).
Diatonic Harmony
When you select a key, the app generates the seven diatonic chords by applying the correct triad quality (major, minor, diminished, or augmented) to each degree of the chosen scale. This ensures the chords shown always belong to the key.
Scale Suggestions
The 'Suggested Scales' feature works like a musical filter. It first finds all scales in its library that contain every one of your selected notes. In addition, it applies musical context; for example, if you select a dominant 7th chord, it will also suggest 'compatible' scales like the Minor Pentatonic and Minor Blues Scale. This is a common musical pairing in blues and rock that is included for its real-world applicability, even though the scale and chord don't perfectly align on paper.
Slide Suggestions Rationale
The slide suggestions are generated by a rulebook specific to the selected genre. The core principle is to identify musically pleasing slides from an "Approach Note" to a "Target Note" within the selected scale.
Blues: The rules are designed to create the classic blues sound by emphasizing the major/minor ambiguity. Slides often target strong chord tones (Root, 3rd, 5th) by approaching from a "blue note" (like the b3, b5, or b7).
Rock: The rules for rock favor power and directness. They often use wider, whole-step (two-fret) slides and target notes from the minor pentatonic and blues scales to create strong, driving melodic lines.
Country: The rules focus on diatonic clarity and outlining major chords. Slides often target notes of the major pentatonic scale (Root, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th) to create the classic, clean, and melodic sound characteristic of country guitar.
Jazz: The rules are based on chromaticism and harmonic clarity. Slides in jazz frequently use approach notes that are only a half-step (one fret) away from a target. The targets are often chord tones and important extensions (like the 7th), helping to outline the complex harmonies used in jazz.