Fretfret is an Android app for learning the notes on a guitar fretboard. It shows a random note selected from the frets and strings you want to be tested on. Name the note associated with the position shown, press next, and see if you were right! Repeat until you're a guitar wizard.

Design

Similar trainer apps I've used introduce too much friction to get to the next note, through having to select your answer from a bunch of buttons. You have to first come up with an answer, then navigate their UI to input the answer to get to the next one.

To me, the purpose of these kinds of trainers is more to improve your recall time than your accuracy. After trying a few options out, I ended up liking the simplest one - showing which note the last position was. This way, you have access to the answer if you're not sure whether you named it correctly.

On learning the fretboard

I recommend starting with a 3 to 5 frets on a single string, and focusing on getting those down fairly automatically.

Then, move onto the next 3-5 (NOT all the frets you've learned combined).

Once you've gotten all the frets on a string down, test yourself on the entire string.

If you just keep adding notes to the ones you already know, the newer notes will appear less frequently so it takes longer to get them down.

It's important to space repititions of new material close together. This approach follows that of learning systems such as Anki.

Roadmap

• labels for strings

• customizeable strings - There's no reason why this can't be used for other stringed instruments. I'm planning on add customization for selecting the number of strings and their tunings.

• tempo tracker - Since this app prioritizes time to answer to accuracy, it may be useful to show you how many positions you go through per minute so you can gauge your progress over time.

Contributing

Email hello at this domain, with fretfret in the subject, with patches, bug reports, or feature requests.