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Viewing Notes in a Certain Area of the Fretboard (FretMonster Update)

Jul 11, 2024

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Description

Hello, my friends! I’ve made some updates to my FretMonster web tool, and wanted to let you know about them. Details are below! If FretMonster is entirely new to you, check out the video tour further below on this page… it explains how the tool works and various ways you might put it to use.

List of Updates (July 2024)

Changing the Range of Visible Frets

By default, FretMonster shows you all the notes on the fretboard — per whatever scale and key you pick. For example, select an major scale in the Key of E, and voila — all those notes across the entire fretboard are visible.

But as of today, you can adjust this visible range of frets if desired — and shrink it to a smaller number of frets. For example, suppose you’re working between frets 7-12 and want to hide everything else. This is now possible! Look for the Visible Fret Range box under the fretboard, and adjust things accordingly.

You can also move this entire visible range up, or down, in its entirety. This is handy if you want to (for example) view one CAGED shape at a time, and then move up or down until the next shape presents itself.

Clicking to Hear Each Note

I added this earlier in the year but never really let folks know about it. In short, you can click on each note that appears on the fretboard — and hear how it sounds! This is a great way to hear what a note would sound like if played on your actual guitar.

New Instruments Added

FretMonster has always had multi-instrument support, but I’ve added a few new tunings and support for the dobro. Clicking any of these instruments changes the number of strings on the fretboard, and ensures each string is tuned accordingly per that instrument.

New instruments & tunings added:

  • Guitar (DADGAD)
  • Guitar (Open E)
  • Dobro (Open G)

Existing instruments & tunings:

  • Guitar (Drop D)
  • Guitar (Double-Drop D)
  • Guitar (Open D)
  • Cigar Box Guitar (3 and 4 string, open G)
  • Ukulele
  • Mandolin
  • Bass

Give it a try! Use FretMonster @ songnotes.net/fretmonster

New to FretMonster? Start Here

Need Help Reading the Fretboard?

Check out my new course – Reading Music for Guitarists! It provides an extensive deep-dive into reading tabs, chord chats, and a handful of other notation styles you'll see when playing guitar. This includes guitar tabs, chord charts, strumming patterns, chord progressions, fretboard diagrams, and an overview of my song sheets. For each topic I have a video lesson, a PDF download, and a webpage component.

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