Interactive Guitar Fretboard
Explore scales, chord tones and repeating patterns across the fretboard.
Secure. Data stays in your browserReference tones use A4 = 440 Hz. Scroll horizontally on smaller screens.
Learn the fretboard through small patterns
Select your instrument and start with all notes. Each fret raises a string by one semitone; twelve frets bring you to the same note name one octave higher. Choose a root and a scale to see which notes belong together. The brighter circles mark that root wherever it appears.
Scales and chord tones
A scale gives you a set of notes to explore melodically. Chord tones show the notes within a particular chord: a major triad contains the root, major third and perfect fifth. Try finding those tones on adjacent strings, then play a short phrase that lands on the root.
Highlighted chord tones do not automatically form a playable chord shape. Build a voicing by choosing notes you can fret together. Sharps and flats here are simple alternative labels for the same sounding pitches; this display does not apply the full spelling rules of every key.
Practice beyond one position
Find a note on one string, then find it elsewhere. Play the same scale in two areas of the neck and listen to how the fingering changes. The high G ukulele setting uses its usual reentrant tuning, so the top displayed string is A and the bottom G is higher than C.
Using the Guitar Fretboard Explorer
Use the fretboard map to find a note, learn a scale or compare chord tones. Start with a small area of the neck rather than trying to memorize every position at once.
Instructions
- Select Instrument, Root and the pattern you want under Show.
- Choose Note spelling and Fret display. The open strings are in the column marked Open; higher strings appear at the top.
- Tap a note to hear its reference tone. Use Stop tone to end playback. On a smaller screen, scroll the fretboard sideways to reach the remaining frets.
Using the highlighted notes
For C major, the scale notes are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The root has its own highlight so you can find a starting or finishing point. Chord-tone highlights show notes belonging to the chord, but you still need to choose a fingering you can play.
What to do if the map does not match your instrument
- Check Instrument first. Standard guitar, drop D, bass and high-G ukulele use different open strings.
- If a note seems missing, check the selected pattern and scroll across the board. Fret 12 repeats an open note one octave higher.
- If the reference is silent, check your playback output and press a note again after returning to this page.
The displayed notes follow the selected tuning. If you use another tuning, compare your actual open-string notes before applying the map.
