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Posted by: Spyle Oct 17 2007, 06:54 AM

So I'm trying to learn the notes for all the frets and I ran into a "Fretboard Warrior" program which was a pretty cool idea. The free version didn't meet my needs though, probably because I'm so new. So anyways, I made my own version of this. It's not as flashy as the other one, but I think it has more features.

* Turn strings on/off
* Show last note when wrong
* Show fret #
* Do markers only
* Do whole notes only
* 1-99 minutes
* Goal given based on time and level selected

For now it does lack sound, I might add that later. This is helping me a lot. I started off easy with markers only and 1 string. Increased the level each time until I reached the goal. Then I did 2 strings, 3 strings, and so on.. Once I get those all down, I'll do whole notes.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~Spyle/frets.exe

You do need the .NET Framework 2.0 if you don't have it already from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

Posted by: Hemlok Oct 17 2007, 06:57 AM

Object not found!

The requested URL was not found on this server.

Edit: Woops. Gotta right click, save link as. I just clicked the link.

Fantastic if it works Spyle, I would love to try it out.

Edit 2: It wont work for me. just a command prompt screen with nothing in it. I guess i better download the framework thing

Edit 3: Nope still doesn't wanna work.

Posted by: Spyle Oct 17 2007, 07:18 AM

Not sure what you saved with the right click =p I accidentally uploaded it to the wrong site at first. The link should work now.

Posted by: Hemlok Oct 17 2007, 07:22 AM

haha yeah, first thing i downloaded was 1kb, this one is 35kb and doesnt work either.

Hmm when i right click it saved a file that was 216kb...

Now it works! Freaking Frets Very cool Spyle great work

Posted by: Spyle Oct 17 2007, 07:24 AM

Ooops mistake #2, uploaded it in ascii hah. Should work now lol /crosses fingers

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Oct 17 2007, 09:13 AM

Works great for me, really cool ... cough .... not that I need it of course

Posted by: shredmandan Oct 17 2007, 10:21 AM

I think its about the exact same thing as fret warrior,but it is still cool.Thanks

Posted by: RobM Oct 17 2007, 10:26 AM

Big difference and the thing I like a lot about fretboard warrior is that it also makes the sound of the note. That way I can train my ear as well as the location on the fretboard for each note.

Posted by: JVM Oct 17 2007, 11:44 AM

Fretboard warrior really isnt a good way to train your ear. It can help if you hear an F, and then another F two octaves up for example. But generally, youll recognize that even without training, if you heard the first F. Sound would be a cool addition, but I already like this more than fretboard warrior.

Posted by: RobM Oct 17 2007, 01:35 PM

I agree that you would not want to use something like this to solely train your ear but I've grown used to having the sound of the note play each time I'm asked to identify a new note on the fretboard. Sound, more realistic math(it wants the user to identify one note per second on level six) and a better launcher(I have to hit run each time I double click the icon) and I think that would really set this apart from fretboard warrior.

Posted by: JVM Oct 17 2007, 07:54 PM

I agree, one note per second identification is a bit hard when it takes about a second to find the button you want to press I have it down to about 3 seconds.

What I really love about this one is that it lets you decide which notes you want to show. It would have been really useful for me to have the string and marker only options when i started using fretboard warrior.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Oct 17 2007, 08:06 PM

Well 30 years of guitar playing and I suck at identifying the notes (I work on relative notes and by ear which works just fine for me!) But this little program has inspired me to do the right thing and learn the fretboard, who knows what it might add to my playing!

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Oct 17 2007, 08:20 PM

Hey I really like this but can I request a minor enhancement please?

Its hard to have just the # notes to pick, I'd like to be able to work in flats as well - can there be a checkbox to flip between sharps, flats and both (well not a checkbox if there are 3 options but you know what I mean!)

Posted by: Fabian Schulz Oct 17 2007, 08:37 PM

Great thing

Works fine after downloading the .NET Framework 2.0.

Posted by: Spyle Oct 18 2007, 12:40 AM

Updated it with a few small things. Still no sound though..

Changed goal math a bit, lvl 7-10 are going to be pretty hard.
Added option to change sharp/flat display
Added option to turn columns of frets on/off

Posted by: RobM Oct 18 2007, 01:08 AM

Plays nice and smooth and I like the options that you added. It's a really good tool.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Oct 18 2007, 01:36 AM

Thanks, now its even cooler!

Posted by: Spyle Oct 18 2007, 04:16 AM

haha ok I'm having too much fun making this thing

I've made it so it has 2 modes now.


1. Press corresponding note to fret shown
-or the opposite
2. Press corresponding fret to note shown

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Oct 18 2007, 04:20 AM

I like it! Now its amazingly totally cool! Just add sound and you can sell it for less tha fretboard warrior and make a mint!

Posted by: jammer91 Oct 19 2007, 11:34 PM

It has refreshed my note naming skills in 5 minutes.

How did you make this? (is it easy)

Nice job man, you could perk it up a bit and sell it.

Posted by: Spyle Oct 20 2007, 06:48 AM

I wrote it in VB.NET. It was pretty easy. I usually only do db apps, which is part of the reason it has no sound. I could just have it play a wav file or something for each note, but that doesn't seem very efficient. Having it do midi would be cool but I don't know enough about that.

Good to hear you guys are liking. I don't think I'd ever try and sell it, it's good to be free

Posted by: Spyle Nov 2 2007, 03:03 AM

For anyone interested and trying to learn to read music, I've added a little something for that to this.

Hopefully I did it correctly haha

It's the same sort of idea, it shows you a note (and corresponding frets if you want) and you select which one it is. The spread (default 3) is how far off the next note can be. So if you set it to one it would be easy, and 10 would be harder, at least for me hah.