Appmuse

Fun to learn the fretboard this way. Wish I would have started years ago!

However, the name chord portion of the app never shows some triads and 7th chords that are easily fingered. Edit: The developer contacted me to ask what was missing. A version of the app containing the missing triads would easily earn a 5. By the way, the app sounds the notes when you select them, clean and clear enough to help with ear training. Show more

Spend the extra money on the other add one. This app is quickly replacing my Mel bay and Hal Leonard guitar scales books

I had a problem with my purchasing unlocking. I emailed them and they fixed with an update within a few hours.

Useful, I bought the guitar version and it keeps giving me notes outside the range I choose. Because of this, it is literally impossible to get a correct answer even if I click every single option. Show more

I’m getting full screen ads every 3 notes. Surely this is a bug?!? I don’t mind paying for the app but the ads are so intrusive I can’t even evaluate the app. Show more

Okay

The banjo fretboard is marked incorrectly. The 9th fret is marked instead of the 10th. Threw me off for awhile.

Purchased the guitar extension and all the sounds are gone. Can I have my money back?

Fret Trainer features a variety of exercises, and seems pretty easy to use. The sounds are pleasant, and the look and feel of the game is clean and straightforward. Comment about the navigation: I fiund it a little confusing, and got stuck a time or two early on. One thing I wish were different with Fret Trainer: in the “name the notes“ exercises, I wish that instead of asking players to identify the note on the fretboard as “B” or “F#”, that it would just display the note as it appears on the musical staff. To me, the names of the notes are in the way, and are less relevant somehow than the way they look in the score. If you read music, you already know the letter names if the notes. There is a musical staff exercise that does match to the letter names of the notes, but again, that seems less useful than matching those notes directly to the fretboard. Also, minor visual improvement for that exercise would be to display the ledger lines above and below the staff clearly, not grayed out; the lack of clear ledger lines is extremely distracting. I like the app, and I really like that it displays the fretboard from the guitarist’s point of view, not vertically or as seen as if looking straight at the instrument. Nearly perfect…if it allowed a setting to view notes as they really appear, instead of only by name, I’d give it two “p”s up! Show more

AWESOME

There are a fair amount of good things about this app, a number of things that need improvement, and a couple things that have me going elsewhere to learn, app or otherwise. The concepts of the games are solid, and I like that it covers a pretty wide range of aspects of the fretboard. The game mechanics and learning methods themselves are satisfactory. Now, what needs improvement: a) I don’t find the GUI very intuitive, prohibitively so. Screen space isn’t utilized as effectively as it could be. Note names on the bottom would be easier to navigate and select if they were rectangular. I think then it might be possible to design it in a way that flats and sharps are both displayed. At the very least, a sharps/flats toggle should be immediately accessible. The fretboard could be wider if other IU were consolidated as well. In games that require one to chose a fret position of a string, things are a bit unresponsive and clunky when selecting. Another reviewer mentioned their desire for voice recognition so one could speak the note names. I think that’s a bit much to ask, as I’m sure the implementation would be a significant undertaking, but a feature like that would increase this app’s value markedly. b) There’s no option to have both enharmonic note names. I understand that musically flats and sharps don’t appear together in a key signature, and the difficulties of implementing this as a feature, but there’s nothing I encountered that reinforces the association between enharmonic notes. In practice, as I go about music, much of the time I don’t have a specific key in mind or it isn’t really identifiable at the time. Knowing your enharmonics strengthens your ability to think in multiple different possible keys at the same time. It’s a vital skill and something that an app like this should account for. c) Now the deal-breaker. I understand that developing an app takes resources and thus ads are a necessary evil. If I like an app enough and use it often, I will sometimes pay for an ad free experience. Upon trying out the games in this app, I liked it overall, despite the flaws, and was tempted to put down some money for it, so I headed to the store menu. Lo and behold, one can pay to expand the app’s contents, but there is no option to eliminate ads. I might have thrown $10 or $15 down, maybe a few dollars a month, to have an ad free experience, or, heck, even $1-$2 dollars a month might be worth it to see just 1 ad every 5-10 minutes. With the frequency at which ads pop up, I just don’t find it worth it to pay for any additional content. Especially in a music education app, where sound ON is essentially necessary, an ad popping up every 1-2 minutes with volume twice as loud as anything in the app itself is, for me, just unacceptable. Again, I understand app development takes time and money, but, if a customer likes your product, let them buy it and be allowed to use it without being constantly intruded upon. Show more

This app has been extremely helpful to me.

Great app - in a new update can you give users the option to make the strings different colors? I feel this would help with the memorization. Thanks.

I like the core functionality but can’t seem to get the note sounds to play

Overall a great app! I am using it to learn frets 6 through 12 on the bass. Two days into using it, I already feel more comfortable naming these notes. Still far from perfect, but definitely improving quickly thanks to this app. Definitely worth the $2 investment! My one (very small) complaint is that there isn’t an option to stop the same note from appearing more than once in a row. It’s a small annoyance, but it builds up with time and disrupts the flow of the exercise. Show more

I’ve played fingerstyle guitar for decades and have been repeatedly frustrated by “methods” to learn the fretboard. Now that I’m switching to rhythm guitar and strumming it has become a priority. I started with learning the notes on the 5th and 6th strings—very easy. Then, I used the circle of 4ths—BEADGCF—to aid me in visually plotting out the other strings (Look it up online—it really makes sense.). I then added the “L” shape pattern for finding octaves (also easily found online). The problem was practice. All other methods and books and websites offered “flash cards.” Those are clumsy and antiquated. Enter “Fret Board Trainer.” It is an extremely versatile, customizable, easily accessible and portable way to study and quiz your self on notes, chords and scales. I’ve had this app for a a while, but have begun using it to learn and quiz myself. With the use of the above-mentioned shortcuts and the power of Fret Trainer to provide randomized quizzing in a game format, I have nearly “mastered” the fretboard in about a week. I would have paid $50 for this app had I understood its value. I understand how confusing and time consuming looking for the apps that will do exactly what you need them to do. I have plenty of THOSE apps. I don’t write many reviews, but when I do it has to be “knock-your-socks-off” quality. This is such an app. Yes, you will still need to invest the work and mental energy, but Fret Trainer will provide the coaching to help you succeed. I highly recommend this app. Best of luck in your musical journey!! Show more

Good job on the App. Very useful tool. I would like to recommend a improvement in the Name Note game. In the settings allow to only use certain notes. That would enable users to concentrate on the chosen notes and octave notes. Show more

I might’ve purchased the app or I might’ve even tried to play it longer but after selecting the first note I got a pop-up ad I mean come on let me at least play it for 10 minutes first Show more

first pop up ad can’t be closed. click on (x), nothing.