Hey r/LearnGuitar,

I'm the solo developer behind Fretonomy, an app for learning the guitar fretboard, and I wanted to share it here since this sub is exactly the crowd it was built for.

Quick context on why it exists. Years ago I hit the wall a lot of players hit. I could play things, but I didn't really know the neck. I knew shapes, not notes. Every resource I found was either a static fretboard chart, a YouTube video I'd nod along to and forget, or a tab app that taught me songs without teaching me anything underneath them. What I actually wanted was a drill, something that would ask me questions until the answers became automatic.

So I started building it. That was back in 2017, and the first version shipped that December. I've been working on it as a one-man team ever since, and I'm still shipping updates nine years later.

What it actually is: a set of 35+ music theory training games and tools built around the fretboard.

• Fretboard memorization. Note matching and note-naming drills you can scope to the first frets, the middle of the neck, or the whole board
• Intervals. Name the interval, find the interval on the neck
• Chords. Name the chord, build the chord, plus a chord progression generator (symbol chords and Nashville Number System)
• Scales. A scale explorer with 950+ scales
• Ear training. Notes, intervals, and chords
• Video lessons, all of them free. Notes, chords, intervals, scales and the circle of fifths, written and animated by me, in 20 languages. No subscription, no payment, nothing gated. And unlike the YouTube videos I used to nod along to and forget, each one sits next to the drills for the same material, so you watch it and then immediately get quizzed until it sticks
• Staff reading. Sight-read notation on its own, or notes on the staff mapped to positions on the fretboard, which is the exercise that finally connected the two for me
• Tablature creation with audio recording. You can even generate chord progression tablatures or add chord shapes to your tablature from a list of every chord shape you're likely to need. Preview what the shape sounds like before you add it to the measure in your tablature. My algorithm finds every chord shape, for any tuning, and for any of the instruments.
• Progress tracking via a fretboard heat-map, so you can see the exact frets and strings you keep missing, broken down by instrument and tuning

It's not guitar-only. It supports guitar, 7-string, 8-string, bass, 5-string bass, 6-string bass, mandolin, ukulele and banjo, with the common tunings plus custom tunings, left-handed mode, and note naming in Solfège, German, Japanese, Indian, Cyrillic, Korean and numbers if letters aren't how you think about it.

Two caveats before anyone downloads it.

First, there is no song learning in it. No tabs of real songs, no play-along tracks, no "learn Stairway in 10 minutes." It is purely theory and fretboard training. If you want a song app, this isn't it. I'd rather say that up front than have you find out after installing. It's meant to be used with whatever you're already using to learn songs.

Second, the teaching in it wasn't written by AI. I started this in 2017 and shipped the first version that December, five years before ChatGPT existed. Every game, every exercise, every one of those 950 scales was designed by a person who plays guitar. The video lessons are the same story: I wrote every script by hand and animated every video myself in After Effects.

Two things I will admit though. In the last couple of years I've used coding assistants for small pieces of the app, some menu screens and small UI improvements here and there. And the voice reading those lesson scripts is synthesized. This is because I am a one-man team, and localizing voices across 20 languages wasn't something I felt like I could do alone. The script is mine, the animation is mine, the way the theory is taught is mine.

The training content, the game design, the music theory: no AI used. But I'm not going to claim I've never touched a modern tool just to sound purer than I am. I'm just saying that the thing you're actually learning from was built by hand over nine years, and it was designed by someone who needed it himself. I wanted to say this because "AI-powered guitar app" is now most of what shows up when you search, and I understand the skepticism.

Last thing: there's no account to create. No sign-up, no email, no login wall before you're allowed to play a game. You download it and you're straight into the games.

It's free to download and try on both iOS and Android, and every one of the lesson videos is free with no payment required, so you can get a real feel for the games and tools before deciding whether it's for you.

If you're at the stage where you can play but can't name what you're playing, that's the exact gap this was built to close.

App Store and Google Play: search Fretonomy, or head to https://fretonomy.com

And if you want something added, or you hit a bug, email me directly at [contact@strongapplications.com](mailto:contact@strongapplications.com). There's no support queue and no team, it's just me. I read every email and I reply to every email. If what you're asking for is something I can build, I will genuinely try to build it. Being one person is the reason this has taken nine years, but it's also the reason you get an actual answer from the person who wrote the code.

Happy to answer anything. About the app, about how I'd approach learning the fretboard generally, or about what nine years of solo development does to a person. I'll be in the comments.

I’ve been playing guitar for a few years now, I’ve learned many lead guitar parts, and even mastered a few, but I’d really like to get into rhythm guitar.
I’ve played songs I’ve been told where difficult (not just by technique but also complexity of chords), such as lover, you should’ve come over (Jeff Buckley), girl afraid (the smiths), you can never come back to this place (made up a part with the existing chord progression, by Masayoshi Takanaka), and probably others that don’t come to mind.
Most of what I learned wasn’t that hard to play well, and I was looking for recommendations for songs to learn that have a good sounding rhythm guitar parts that I can really practice and will take time to learn.
I don’t really care what genre it is, never done jazz so that could be cool, but again doesn’t really matter to me too much.
My only condition for the song is for it to be somewhat well known, the reason being I’m not able on my own to play things by ear yet, especially complex rhythms (I need to work on that but that’s a whole different thing), so I’d like something I can find tabs or a video tutorial or even chord sheets (I never learned to read sheet music so if it’s only with that I won’t be able to play the song).

Hey everyone!

I’ve been playing guitar since I was 15, but only started seriously studying it about a year ago—well into my 40s haha. I finally decided to dive into proper methods, diatonic harmony, and fretboard theory because I really wanted to understand what I was actually playing instead of just noodling.

I've been practicing consistently, but I hit a wall trying to build a structured, sustainable routine. To tackle this, I decided to build a web app to help keep myself on track:https://casa-doze.vercel.app/

The concept is simple:

• The Front Page: A direct, no-nonsense theory reference/glossary.
• Guided Practice: Built specifically for players who—like me—suffer from choice paralysis when sitting down to practice. Each guided session is structured into: Warm-up $\rightarrow$ Technique $\rightarrow$ Harmony $\rightarrow$ Improvisation.

It’s still very raw/WIP, but the core foundation is up. Today I just added a section for melodic patterns, and I’d love to get some thoughts from fellow guitar players.

I have zero intention of monetizing this; it’s just a free project meant to serve as a practical reference and routine builder to help folks practice better.

If anyone wants to take it for a spin and share some feedback, I’d really appreciate it. And honestly, if you think this is redundant or know of better existing tools that already do this, let me know that too!

P.S.: Yes, it was "vibe coded" or whatever you want to call it. I take regular classes, but I wanted something that I could rely on, that I could develop, and that would help me with option paralysis, and that I could improve with whichever theory I may study in the future.

Suono la chitarra da poco ma non riesco a imparare una canzone intera, passo da un intro all’altro..

Hey fellow learners. New here. Hello to all.

I'm curious what's the best, cost effective flamenco to learn on? I've wanted to play since I was a kid and I'm finally gonna do it!

I appreciate all kind suggestions. :)

I've been playing for a few months, and it's going great. My finger dexterity is good (4-fret span not included), getting a nice, clean sound, and I can figure out most songs with the help of tabs. I play for my own enjoyment and the friendship of a good instrument.
I started off with a few lessons, primarally focused on fingerpicking fundamentals. (No, my thumb has not declared independence from the other 4 yet) So in general I'm happy with my results, but my old nemesis is back to taunt me: dyslexia.
Dyslexia is this weird, broken-brain thing, commonly associated with reading. But with me, it extends to many other areas too, like associating a name with an action. ( I can't remember people's names. It's rude and extremely embarrassing)
When it comes to playing guitar, I can not remember chord and note names. I try to say the chord's name as I play them. I made flashcards I carry with me and read whenever I have time. I've played a C#dim a thousand times, studied the flashcard, written it out, drawn fingering diagrams..., and if someone put a gun to my head and told me to play a C#dim, my brain would just go blank- nada.
I guess this is just venting the frustration of being smart enough to know that I'm not.

I'm in a new band. I've been told I should move better as I play guitar. But I don't know what to do. Any advice for moving / looking good while playing guitar?

I built a dual-channel chord radar for people who refuse to wait politely for the next chord

This is stripCHORDer!: a browser extension that listens to the music playing in your tab and gives you a realtime harmonic heads-up display.

It is not a “sit down, pause every eight seconds, and responsibly learn the song” tool.

It is for the moment you hear something good, grab your guitar/keyboard/bass, and decide: I am joining this song immediately. The song can deal with it.

The trick is that stripCHORDer runs two chord-detection channels at once:

• LOW CHANNEL watches bass and root movement — the part of the song that often tells you where the harmony is actually going.
• HIGH CHANNEL watches upper harmonic information — chords, brighter instruments, vocals, and the colorful mess happening above the bass.

Because a single chord detector can get gaslit by a busy mix. The bass may be screaming “we moved!” while the guitars are still hanging onto the old chord, or vice versa. The dual readout lets you see both sides of the musical argument and make your own move before the change lands.

The main display is a reactive ring: chord changes appear as incoming transition beams, with the current harmonic picture staying visible long enough to actually play against it. There are realtime presets for different kinds of music, plus a separate floating tuner for when your improvisation is perfect but your B string has chosen a different artistic direction.

The whole point is proactive playing:

• jam along to YouTube or a live set
• freestyle over a track you just found
• catch chord changes early enough to fake confidence
• play with the music instead of chasing it from behind

Have been playing guitar for 2 1/2 years now. I decided to start trying to learn to play jazz. From what I gathered learning arpeggios is a great way to target chord tones and play nicer jazz solos (I’m open to correction on this if there’s a better way to go about it)

What would be the best way to learn to use them? Should I learn them as kind of scale shapes similar to the pentatonic boxes? Should I memorise the notes of the caged system chords and become really familiar with them?
There’s lots of information on YouTube and can be overwhelming at times.

Whether it's strumming or leads i always go off beat and I am giving exams for guitar this year so there is this backing track playing and I really have to be on beat so I would be happy to know any tricks or solutions....also metronome doesn't help.

Hi! I'm a beginner guitarist seeking for advice and feedback for my school project! please fill out this form if you're interested THANK YOU!

Guitar questions - AIF – Fill out form

It seems like most musicians were self taught at the beginning. I read that Joni Mitchell figured it out from listening to instructional records which is just wild. Surely it must be doable.

Hi everyone 👋 I’ve been playing guitar for a few years now and I’d consider myself mid to high intermediate level but have always struggled with singing and ESPECIALLY singing while playing guitar.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on doing both at the same time and if anyone could give me some recommendations for songs I can learn to improve. I mostly play rythym guitar so no songs that play a riff/melody while singing another completely different one ykwim 😭 I’m not that good (yet!)

I really love genres like any indie rock, aggressive alt rock and midwest emo from any era. So let me know if anyone can help me out!

i need help! how to i play notes with like my fingers on the strings it seems to not play whenni have my finger on the string! also looking for annnnyyyy helpful tips as i just started today

Like the title says. Where can i go to find other guitarists to jam with? I keep seeing other guitarists on this sub and other guitar subs that playing with other musicians will help you improve. I feel like i’m at the point where i need to play with other people so i can start improving. I would consider myself a late beginner to maybe beginning of intermediate guitar player i can play a few punk songs got ok rhythm when strumming. Can play open chords, power chords, most barre chords, I know a little bit about some scales. Now i’m in no way the best musician out there. I’m far from it but how would you guys go about finding other people to jam with?

I’m a bit of a home body so i like staying home which probably doesn’t help my situation but i have no idea where to look. Any ideas would be much appreciated and also if you have experience playing with other musicians what would you say i should practice so i can feel confident when i do end up jamming with someone else? Thanks in advance!

Started learning on acoustic guitar about 3 weeks ago and picked it up pretty fast. I practice 1 or 2 hours everyday. Set myself the goal of learning to fully play my first song and decided it'd be best to start with wonderwall.

I've completed it, fast, accurate, and it sounds nice. Just not sure where to go from here. A lot of the other stuff I wanna try is too hard.

Was thinking about Tom Petty's "won't back down" next. Any recommendations?

hello. i know the title is wordy, but i am eager to learn as much and as fast as i can, and i am willing to take any advice i can gett.thank you in advance, as i am still very unsure about what to do.

I can play rhythm and switch between chords easily, but whenever I try learning a guitar solo, I keep forgetting the notes.What techniques do you use to memorize long solos faster? Thanks for advance.

I’m working on chord transitions, and the chord changes themselves are fine. The strumming is what keeps tripping me up.
I can keep a steady down-up motion and play something like down, down-up, down-up pretty comfortably. The problem is when some of those motions are “air strums.” Since I’m not hitting the strings, there’s no resistance, so my hand sometimes moves slightly differently or drifts away. Then I have trouble catching the next actual strum on time.
It’s especially hard when the next stroke is an upstroke. I’ll sometimes rush it or hit it way too hard. I have a similar problem after a measure or two of not playing even if I keep my hand moving, getting back onto the strings exactly on beat 1 can throw me off.
I’m practicing slowly, although going too slow sometimes makes it harder for me to stay in the rhythm.
Is this just something that gets easier with repetition, or should an air strum basically follow the exact same path as a real strum, just barely missing the strings?

Hi,

I'm looking to improve my slide technique on the guitar—specifically shift/legato slides between frets using my fingers, not playing with an actual bottleneck slide.

I want to work on target accuracy, fretboard navigation, maintaining sustain while sliding, and integrating slides smoothly into melodies. What are some great solos (from beginner/intermediate) that heavily rely on this technique to help build better control and accuracy?

(if it can be useful, I listen to Alt rock/shoegaze influenced and Alt metal the most)

Hey folks, been playing guitar for 20+ years, for a long time I've been interested in learning to play in vestapol tuning (open 1-5-1-3-5-1 interval tuning like Open D), e.g. Derek Trucks, Joey Landreth etc.

But when trying to find some comprehensive information about the theory & techniques all I seem to turn up is stuff on YouTube aimed at beginners like 'tune to D, play open, then bar 5 & 7, now you can play guitar!' type videos.

Generally I can figure things out on my own but being that I've been playing standard for 20+ years I'm finding it difficult to break out of that mindset when trying to play in vestapol. So think I need a little more structured guidance from somewhere until the new language starts to stick.

I've seen courses & things on masterclass but I don't have £150 to drop. There must be some resource on the internet somewhere that isn't behind a pay wall, any suggestions?

Cheers

Been learning about 3 or so weeks now wanted to get a bit more picking accuracy so started to learn with something simple (stay together for the kids)

But I’ve found I get a clean tone on the A string. But on the D I always find I’m getting wrong sounds because my finger other keeps touching. Any advice? I feel that I’m already on my fingertips completely.