Frettly - the interactive fretboard explorer and notebook

Frettly is a macOS application dedicated to enabling players of fretted instruments to visualise, experiment, and explore scales, modes and chords using a document based canvas.

Think of Frettly as Pages, not for text but for fretboards.

Frettly isn't just a scale and chord library - it's a persistent, document-based workspace designed by a player, for players. Whether you are composing a complex jazz piece, teaching a student, or exploring a new tuning on your banjo, Frettly organises your theory explorations into easily read, playable, shareable and saveable documents.

Supporting guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, banjo and ukulele, each document you create can show multiple scales/chords/modes for the document’s chosen instrument, and each instrument type supports multiple possible tunings.

The roadmap for future Frettly enhancements is brimming with features. If you have suggestions for features or improvements, need support or advice, contact us at:

hello@frettly.app

Built for: teachers and players alike, who want to explore the relationships between notes/intervals in scales and chords, train their ears and to mark and annotate their learnings in reloadable documents.

A document-based fretboard explorer and notebook

Frettly documents are made of fretboard panels, each displaying a given scale, chord, or mode
Save different documents for different learnings, projects or tunings
Each document displays its fretboards in the context of the document's instrument/tuning/handedness
Modify a document’s instrument/tuning/handedness at any time and all panels update to show that change
Customise Frettly by selecting from a range of fretboard backgrounds and colour themes for notes
Cut/Copy/Paste actions supported for all fretboard and document modifications
Undo/Redo actions supported for all fretboard and document modifications
Cut/Copy/Paste and fretboard drag and drop actions all work across as well as within documents
Click any note or interval to hear the note singly, with sustain, or to hear the panel's pattern from that note, pitch-perfect and instrument-specific
Zoom in and out of fretboards
Arrange panels using a simple panel management dialog, or by drag-and-drop
Occurrences of a pattern's note/intervals can be selectively hidden for focussed practise and learning
Toggle the display of either notes or intervals
Mark notes/intervals on frets to highlight them
Toggle display between all notes or only marked notes
Toggle display of a notepad per fretboard to record teaching notes or ideas

Any feedback or ideas on Frettly workflows, visualisation, usability or improvments is welcome, please drop us a line.

Frettly is a product of Efford Studio Limited

Efford Studio Limited is an independent UK software studio focused on thoughtfully crafted tools for musicians and creatives.