Meet your fretboard.
Find your notes. Follow your curiosity. Make it music.
Find the note.
Play the target note in any octave, or find it on the fretboard.
Everything is connected.
Move through the keys and see the fretboard follow. Neighbors share all but one note.
Outer ring: major. Inner ring: relative minor.
Back to the full fretboardA good place to start.
Select a string, play it, and bring the needle home.
Listening for the closest open string in your tuning.
C majorThe possibilities are already under your fingers.
A little practice goes a long way.
One note at a time. Build a fretboard that feels like home.
This session
A fretboard chart helps you find a note. LiveFretboard helps you connect that note to what you play. Explore a live guitar, bass or ukulele fretboard, enable your microphone, and play one clear note at a time. The app detects its pitch and highlights matching positions on the neck. Use the tool as a free reference without the microphone, or turn it on for feedback while you tune and practice. No account or download is needed.
A Guitar Fretboard That Listens to You
Live pitch detection turns the guitar fretboard into a visual note finder. Watch a played note appear, check its octave, and follow your pitch accuracy in cents. A microphone detects pitch, not the physical string or fret, so the app estimates the nearest position using your previous note. You can also show all valid positions. Audio stays in your browser and is never recorded or uploaded. Headphones help keep reference-tone playback out of the microphone.
Guitar Fretboard Notes, Diagrams & Charts
Learn notes on the guitar fretboard with an interactive diagram you can adjust to your instrument. Start with standard six-string guitar, or select seven or eight strings. Show every note, hide note names, or highlight only selected notes. Switch between sharps and flats and right- or left-handed views. Choose 12, 15 or 24 frets to explore guitar fretboard notes across two octaves. Click a note to hear a synthesized reference tone and compare repeated notes across the fretboard map.
Bass Fretboard Support
Select four-, five- or six-string bass to see a bass fretboard diagram with the appropriate open strings. Use the bass fretboard chart to learn note locations, explore scale patterns, or follow bass fretboard notes as you play. The 24-fret view extends the bass fretboard map without changing your tuning. Save a custom bass tuning for your own setup; it stays associated with that instrument when you return to guitar or ukulele.
Ukulele Fretboard Support
Find notes on the ukulele fretboard using standard high-G or low-G tuning, or choose baritone ukulele. The ukulele fretboard diagram preserves the instrument’s string order, including the re-entrant high G. Use it as a ukulele fretboard chart with scale highlighting, then open the online tuner to check each string with your microphone. Custom ukulele tunings can be named, saved on your device, and selected again for your next practice session.
Free Chromatic Tuner with Custom Tuning
Use LiveFretboard as a free online guitar tuner with microphone input. The chromatic pitch readout shows the nearest note; tuner mode measures against the open string you select or automatically detects the closest string in your tuning. The cents meter and note turn green within five cents of the target. Choose Standard, Drop D, DADGAD or other presets, or build a custom guitar tuning with your own notes, octaves and string count. Named tunings are saved locally.
Circle of Fifths for Guitar Players
Make connections between keys with an interactive circle of fifths for guitar players. Select a major or minor key to highlight its scale notes on the fretboard. See the relative major or minor and the diatonic chords in the selected key. The connected guitar scale finder also includes all seven modes, harmonic and melodic minor, and major and minor pentatonic scales, so you can move from a theory reference to notes under your fingers.
Practice Exercises & Riff Training
Build fretboard knowledge with note matching, scale runs and a note quiz. The fretboard note trainer gives you a target: play it in any octave or find it on the board for instant feedback. Practice guitar scales with the fretboard highlighter, then use those patterns when working on your own riffs one note at a time. Session history tracks detected notes and pitch accuracy. These are note and scale exercises, not a song library or automatic riff assessment.
Whether you are learning guitar fretboard notes, checking a bass tuning or exploring ukulele scales, LiveFretboard keeps the fretboard, tuner and music theory connected. Pick your instrument, find your first note, and make the next practice session your own.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fretboard on a guitar?
The fretboard, also called the fingerboard, is the surface on the front of a guitar’s neck beneath the strings. Metal frets divide it into positions. Pressing a string just behind a fret shortens its vibrating length and raises its pitch. Each fret moves the note up one semitone; the 12th fret is one octave above the open string.
How do I learn the guitar fretboard?
Start with the open strings in standard tuning: E, A, D, G, B, E, from thickest to thinnest. Learn the natural notes on one string at a time, then find the same note on other strings. Use the 12th-fret octave as a landmark. In LiveFretboard, highlight one note, say its name, play it, and gradually switch to hidden notes or the fretboard quiz.
How do I use livefretboard.com?
Choose your instrument and tuning in the left sidebar, then select the notes or scale you want to see. Click a fretboard note to hear a reference tone. For live feedback, enable the microphone, allow browser access, and play one clear note at a time. Open Tuner to tune strings, Practice for note exercises, or Circle of fifths to explore keys. Stop microphone turns listening off.
What are the features of LiveFretboard?
LiveFretboard includes an interactive 12-, 15- or 24-fret map, note filters, sharps and flats, left-handed mode, scale and interval highlighting, reference tones, live pitch detection, a cents meter, and a per-string tuner. It also offers instrument-specific custom tunings, a connected circle of fifths, note matching, scale runs, a fretboard quiz, and session history. Audio is processed locally. Fret positions are estimated from pitch, and detection works with one note at a time.
How many instruments can I tune on LiveFretboard?
There are eight instrument options across three families: 6-, 7- and 8-string guitar; 4-, 5- and 6-string bass; ukulele; and baritone ukulele. Each option has its own tuning presets and saved custom tunings. The custom tuning builder supports 1–24 strings, with a note and octave for each string. The microphone listens to one instrument note at a time, rather than tuning multiple instruments simultaneously.
Can I tune a ukulele on LiveFretboard.com?
Yes. Select Ukulele for standard high-G tuning, G4–C4–E4–A4, or choose the low-G preset, G3–C4–E4–A4. Select Baritone ukulele for D3–G3–B3–E4. Open Tuner, enable microphone access, and pluck one open string at a time. Adjust the tuning peg until the cents meter is centered and the note turns green. You can also save a custom ukulele tuning.
Can I tune a guitar on LiveFretboard.com?
Yes. Six-string guitar in standard tuning is the default, with E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 from lowest to highest pitch. Select a preset such as Drop D or DADGAD, or create a custom tuning. In Tuner, allow microphone access and play one open string at a time. Use automatic string detection or select a string manually, then adjust toward the center of the cents meter. Seven- and eight-string guitars are also supported.
Can I tune a bass on LiveFretboard.com?
Yes. Choose 4-, 5- or 6-string bass in the instrument selector. Standard four-string bass is E1–A1–D2–G2; five-string adds a low B0, and six-string adds both low B0 and high C3. Open Tuner, enable your microphone, and play one sustained open string at a time. Keep other strings quiet and let the reading settle before adjusting. Bass-specific custom tunings can be saved for reuse.
How do you memorize guitar fretboard notes?
Use short recall exercises instead of only looking at a chart. Pick one note, such as C, and find it on every string while saying its name aloud. Learn the natural notes first, remembering that B–C and E–F are one fret apart; the other neighboring natural notes are two frets apart. Add octave patterns, then test yourself with hidden labels or LiveFretboard’s quiz. A few focused minutes regularly are easier to maintain than occasional long sessions.
What is the 3-fret rule?
In pentatonic playing, the “3-fret rule” commonly means moving a minor pentatonic shape three frets toward the nut to get the major pentatonic notes for the same tonic. For example, move the A minor box starting at fret 5 to fret 2 for the A major pentatonic note set. Keep A as your tonal center: the shifted shape also contains F♯ minor pentatonic notes. This is a scale-pattern shortcut, not a universal rule for finger placement.
What are the 12 notes of the guitar?
The 12 chromatic pitch classes are C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭, A, A♯/B♭, and B. They repeat in every octave. Each guitar fret advances by one pitch class, and 12 frets return to the same note name an octave higher. Pairs such as C♯ and D♭ are different spellings of the same pitch in equal temperament. LiveFretboard lets you choose sharp or flat labels.
How do I play guitar notes?
Tune the guitar first. Pluck an open string to hear its note, then press the string just behind a fret with a fingertip and pluck again. Use only enough pressure for a clear sound and keep your hand relaxed. On the low E string, fret 1 is F, fret 3 is G, and fret 5 is A. Use LiveFretboard to locate a target note and play it slowly before joining notes into a scale or melody.
How do I play bass notes?
Begin with a tuned bass and learn the open strings: E, A, D, G on a standard four-string bass. Fret a note just behind the fret wire, then pluck with a finger or pick while muting unused strings. Each fret raises the pitch by one semitone. Practice a root note and its octave with a steady pulse, then add other scale notes. Select Bass in LiveFretboard to see matching notes and check one sustained note at a time.
How do I play ukulele notes?
Tune the ukulele, then pluck one open string at a time. Standard high-G ukulele uses G4, C4, E4, A4; the G string is higher than the C string, so pitch does not rise evenly across the strings. Press just behind a fret and pluck to raise the note by one semitone per fret. Start with a short melody or C major scale, and use LiveFretboard’s ukulele view to check note names and positions.