The fretboard has a lot of notes. On a standard 22-fret guitar, there are 132 different fretted notes, and 4-5 ways to play one specific note in some cases. This makes it very hard for beginners, and even seasoned players, to find their way around the fretboard.
Knowing where notes are on the fretboard is more helpful than you would think, in cases like:
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Reading Sheet Music: Sometimes the sheet music for a great song is all you have to go off. Knowing the fretboard by heart is the only way to easily read this type of notation.
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Improvising: Instead of playing with shapes, playing with notes lets you highlight the "colors" of a chord. Learn the fretboard to sound smooth and know what you're doing.
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Analysing music: Music theory is all about how notes sound together. If you want to know why something works, it's essential to know what it's made up of first!
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Writing music: Of course, you can get by writing songs without knowing what makes up the chords you play, but once you do, you can make your own chords and melodies that serve your songs how you want.
So, ask yourself - if you were told to play a C# on the G string, G string, would you be able to hit it immediately, or would you fumble around before finding it? Can you play a C# in all possible spots? If not, StringSense could be what you're looking for to help you internalize the fretboard in a fun and engaging way. All you need is a microphone, a guitar, and a calm place to play!
StringSense is not yet in operation, but it will eventually be hosted on the web. Users will simply visit the website in a browser of their choice and ensure the correct microphone is selected. Some notes for input choice:
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If you have an audio interface that plugs into your computer through USB, plug your guitar into that and select it as your microphone through your browser. This guarantees proper capture of your guitar's audio.
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If you do not have an audio interface, use your device's default microphone and ensure your guitar can be heard. Use a clean signal if plugged into an amplifier.
After ensuring your audio input is set up properly, navigate to the
Game page and select your desired gamemode after starting the game
through the menu.
"Drill":
- The game will prompt you with a target note on the fretboard from frets 0 (open) to 12 that is both played aloud and displayed in the bottom-left of the screen.
- Players can then play the note on their guitar that they think matches with the target note.
- The game will visually indicate whether the choice is correct or incorrect via a red or green circle popping up on the game's fretboard display.
- If a note is correctly guessed the first time, a point is gained and a new target note is chosen. Otherwise, the point is not gained when the note is finally guessed, and the game still moves on.
- Players can play for as long as they want.
- Future aspects of the game that are yet to be implemented:
- A timed game, which once ends gives analytics about the player's performance.
- Varying levels of difficulty and assistance.
- Customizable game preferences through the settings page.
"Zen":
- The "Zen" gamemode will be introduced at a later date, and will identify the most recent note played on the guitar and have displays in the background changing based on your playing, as well as droning music. Note displays and background designs will be changed with the arrow keys.
Please note that StringSense is currently only optimised for usablility on desktop/laptop computers. Support for mobile devices is coming soon.
Front-End: JavaScript, HTML/CSS
JS Libaries Used: Web Audio API, Tone.js, pitchy, Konva.js, Meyda
Everything in this project was made by Chris DiCono (me!).
A big thanks to my dad for being so supportive as I work through this
project.
I used a lot of Codecademy resources to help me along the building
process. Specifically the Full-Stack Developer learning path. I
reccomend this to anyone who is interested in full-stack development!