The fretboard visualizer is a study aid for guitarists. It shows chords, scales, arpeggios, and their relationships across the neck — in any key, over any chord progression. The dashboard asks you to declare what you are studying before you look at the fretboard. This is intentional: the act of choosing is part of the learning.
View — How am I seeing the neck?
Neck shows the full fretboard — all scale or chord tones visible at once. Position shows a position window, the area physically under your hand. In Position mode the position arrows become active and navigate between fingering positions. Labels switches dot labels between interval numbers and note names.
Harmony — Where am I in the music?
Choose a Key and a Progression. Then select which chord in the progression you are currently studying — the active chord is highlighted and the callout below shows its symbol and tone spelling (e.g. C7 = C · E · G · B♭).
Content — What am I putting on the fretboard?
Tones — choose one chordal object: Grips, Notes, Intervals (Tritone, 3rd, or 6th), Triads, 7th Chords, or Arpeggios. The Voicing row shows the current voicing and cycling arrows. Cycle order chips set traversal direction.
Scales — choose a scalar context: Pentatonic, Hexatonic, or Mode. The Diatonic chip switches triad/7th-chord traversal to scale-degree-rooted steps. Layers — click a chip to show or hide that layer.
Strategy — How am I thinking about it?
Key keeps overlays rooted at the global key. Chord shifts the overlay root with each chord button — the setting for McErlain's stacking pentatonics concept. Mixed applies major pentatonic on I and minor on IV and V (dominant blues, only).
Reading the fretboard
Full opacity — primary object in focus. Always labeled. Medium opacity — chord or scale tones present but not the primary object. Always labeled. Dim — context notes. Never labeled.
Dot color: red = root · blue = 3rd/♭3 · dark = 5th · gold = ♭7/maj7 · teal = scale tone. Tap any full-opacity dot to hear its pitch. Load a preset to configure the tool to match a specific lesson.