Guitar Note Chart

A neat little way to explore and interact with fretboard of an acoustic guitar is this click-on-the-dots-and-hear-it-note chart. This one shows every note across first twelve frets of a standard-tuned guitar and it enables you to visualise which pitch live on what part of the guitar. Just click on any note to play it, or highlight any pitch to find where else that appears on neck.

If we look at main part, you’ll notice there is six vertical strings in the main area that have numbers along the left edge for their frets. There is also a dot where each number meets an intersection with the corresponding note wrote inside. These notes begin as dimmed dots so they don’t obscure the view of the whole thing.

How to Use This Guitar Chart

Above, there is a set of controls that allow you to choose a particular note. This will lights up all occurrences of that pitch in bright colour, making it easy to pick up on patterns and see that each note occur more than once on other strings. Just tap or click on one of the dots in the fretboard to hear it. It’ll play a soft synth tone that matches the pitch of that position. You can then check what you’ve played with quick read out underneath the controls.

It’s good if you want to make sure you know what it is you’re playing, or if you’re curious to hear what the higher notes sound like different than the lower ones on the instrument. These are labelled above the fretboard with note names including sharps. When you click on any button it will highlight every instance of that note in chart. So for instance, if you press C sharp it will show all the C sharps present in top twelve frets. It trains your eye to see where certain pitches are quite fast and saves counting up from open string each time.

Next to readout area is volume control which lets you turn the audio down or up as needed. Click on fullscreen to maximize the widget and fill out your entire screen if you would of like some extra space to work with the chart. Click on fullscreen again when finished and it will shrink back down to its original size.

Alternatively, if you don’t like using a mouse, there’s full keyboard support. You can use the Tab key to jump around the fret board from dot to dot and control to control. Then Space/Enter will either select the highlighted note or change the highlighting mode (if it’s in that mode). That way your hands stays relatively near each other so you can quickly explore different notes and positions, but still have access to everything.

Highlighting the root note of popular chords is a useful exercise in practice. Notice how the pattern change as you ascend or descend the neck. See if you can locate the octaves, which repeat themselves across every dozen frets. How about listening out for low E on the fat strings compared to high E on the skinny ones?

The interface offers a help panel for those who want a reminder of how things work. The help panel is a compact list of these same tips that you can hide once you’re more comfortabley with the interface. The chart is meant as much as a tool to play around with as it is a reference guide; there’s no rush to master every feature.

Choose a random note first, then try to locate that note as many different ways as possible on the six strings. Next choose another pitch and do the same. Repeat until your fingers is comfortable traveling over the fretboard. It’s an easy method but it works well because you’re able to see what you’re trying to learn as you go while getting instant sound feedback.