Guitar Dashboard

Languages and libraries

music theory explorer

SHOW HN2018

590points
115comments
#22of 2,155 in 2018
Top 2%of 2018 by points

How HN took it

LovedMost comments that take a side are positive

36 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 3 critical, out of 59 comments about the project. Thread score +0.56.

Idea: 8 for, 1 againstDesign: 7 for, 2 againstDocs: 2 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Excellent fretboard visualization, useful for learning theory

    From 4 comments
    • This is absolutely fantastic. I've lost my guitar teacher's notes where he wrote out the modal scale patterns, and the ones online are not good for developing this kind of…
      jihadjihad on HN
    • Great job on this, it's an excellent visualisation.
      drblast on HN
    • Nicely done! Finally a proper aid for learning the fretboard.
      plainOldText on HN
    • I always wanted something like this. Previously I'd set up custom spreadsheets to do the fretboard highlighting like you have. Fantastic work and great effort - thank you!
      BookPage on HN
  • Thanks and enthusiasm for the tool

    From 4 comments

Objections

  • Missing pentatonic scales, which maker declined to add

    From 2 comments
    • Very interesting and pretty tool! I wonder: on the "scales" dropdown, why didn't you include pentatonic? It's so prevalent across so many styles of music; it seems like a must.
      jMyles on HN
    • That's a very good question. I had plans to add major and minor pentatonic scales until it became clear that they way they are used, especially in rock and other blues based…
      mikehadlow on HN
  • Modes listed out of order

    From 1 comment
    • The Modes should be in order, Ionian - I Dorian - ii Phrygian - iii Lydian - IV Mixolydian - V Aeolian - vi Locrian - vii Otherwise its a really useful tool, great job.
      jjkmk on HN

Requests

  • Add custom and alternate tunings

    From 4 comments
    • This tool looks amazing and I will certainly be using it! One request would be to allow custom tunings. All of the tunings I use are not listed, and transposing as I go makes it…
      AndyPandy on HN
    • I will spend some time on this later next week. At first glance my preferred D standard tuning (DGCFAD) does not seem to be available.
      vbsteven on HN
    • Looks decent. I would suggest adding more tunings for us metal players that play lower tunings (for example, I play 2 whole steps down)
      thedjinn on HN
    • It's very easy to add new tunings. I'll collect all the ones from the comments here and add them in the next few days.
      mikehadlow on HN
  • Add chord shapes or chord display

    From 2 comments
    • This is great! I'm not actually sure how prominent the CAGED sequence is in guitarist circles, but I was thinking it might be helpful to indicate the chord shapes. Hope you can…
      mikeyvxt on HN
    • Wow. This is great. I play left-handed, in fourths tuning and these visualizations are amazing. Consider adding chords, too!
      fromMars on HN
  • Pitch constellations and other visualisation options

    From 2 comments
    • This is great! A suggestion: show pitch constellations[1]. Piano/violin music theorists have written me that these were helpful in [2]. (I'd offer you code, but it's so ancient…
      osteele on HN
    • Lefty here. The options to flip the fretboard and the nut are much appreciated. How about introducing another shading for the 3rd and 5th notes, so that the relationship between…
      radiowave on HN
  • Support for kapo and 9-string tuning

    From 2 comments
    • This is really great! It would be cool if you supported a kapo and turning it flat. That way I could tune it to e flat without having to do the mental math, and I could put the…
      3pt14159 on HN
    • Looks very good - I'll get a chance to look properly on a laptop tomorrow. One thing I'd like is the ability to do 9 string tuning - I have a 9,and yet to get seriously into it,…
      djaychela on HN

Questions

  • Guide or resources for beginners on how to use it

    From 2 comments
    • For those of us scrubs just learning guitar, do you have a guide on how to use this? or a link to a good guide?
      supernovae on HN
    • This is amazing, thank you! I've been playing guitar for a while now and am now beginning to understand the importance of theory, but I'm kind of at a loss on how to go about…
      DuckTyping on HN
  • Is there a piano equivalent

    From 1 comment

Alternatives named

  • Fingerboard by osteele

    From 1 comment
    • This is great! A suggestion: show pitch constellations[1]. Piano/violin music theorists have written me that these were helpful in [2]. (I'd offer you code, but it's so ancient…
      osteele on HN
  • Fretboard tool at sonicpines.com

    From 1 comment
    • Very cool. I've also had a side-project developing something similar for a while: http://sonicpines.com/fretboard I keep being surprised at people having the same idea e.g., see…
      uglycoyote on HN
  • FretTrainer and Musicopoulus apps

    From 1 comment
    • Fantastic work. I've been learning music theory off and on to help with my guitar. I was hoping for a whole lot of interactive applications like yours, but found most lacking for…
      tmpmov on HN
  • Guitar Grimoire books

    From 1 comment
    • Awesome project, thank you to the author! I see a lot of folks asking about resources to learn the ideas in this tool, so I’ll recommend the Guitar Grimoire series. Granted they…
      sixstringtheory on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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