Five frets shows only the stretch the notes sit in, and widens when they will not fit — a chord reaching from an open string to the ninth fret keeps both. Pages that already let you choose how much neck to see keep their own choice.
Applies wherever a note is simply named. Where the spelling is fixed by the music — the chords of a key, the notes of a triad — it stays as written.
The default already covers deuteranopia and protanopia; blue–yellow covers tritanopia, and high contrast drops colour altogether. Every dot is labelled and roots are filled, so the board never relies on colour alone.
Fret number, 1 to 24. Leave it empty for no capo. Notes behind the capo are hidden, since you can’t play them.
Tap any note on a fretboard to hear it.
The tools on this site, in the order they make sense.
The menu lists a dozen tools without saying which to open first. This is that answer. Each step below rests on the one above it, so working down in order means never meeting a word that has not been explained yet. None of it is new material — it is the same tools, in a useful order.
There is no progress to track and nothing to sign up for. Take a step when the one before it has stopped feeling like work.
Everything else is built on knowing what you are already playing. This is the one step with no theory in it at all, and the one worth the most hours.
The distance between two notes. Once you can name intervals, chords and scales stop being lists to memorise and start being things you can work out.
Seven notes in a particular pattern of tones and semitones. Nearly all of the theory that follows is measured against this one scale.
Three notes stacked in thirds. Every chord you will ever play is this, or this with something added.
A triad with a fourth note on top, and then a fifth. This is where a chord's name starts telling you what is inside it.
Build a triad on every degree of a scale and you get the seven chords of a key. This is the step that explains why some chords sound like they belong together.
Putting the chords of a key in an order that goes somewhere — and then playing all of it without staying in one box.
Once the seven steps are comfortable, the rest of the site stops being a list of unfamiliar names. The modes are the major scale started from each of its own degrees. The exotic scales are patterns to compare against the ones you know. The identifier will name whatever you are already fretting. None of them need to come first, and none of them will make much sense before step 6. The progression analyser is worth a visit once you know the numerals: paste in the chords of something you already play, and it will tell you what you have been doing.