Fretonomy - Learn Fretboard Reviews

by Hate Green Screen

So I wrote a previous review but can’t find it where I mentioned that the banjo tuning is wrong. I scrolled through some of the critical reviews and forum one from two years ago that mentions this and they just say that you can change the tuning to whatever you want so it’s not a problem. Sorry, I know you can change the tuning but as an app developer you should have the standard tunings and chords correct. The chords you have in Fretonomy make no sense. Fretonomy is poor andIm a bit mad that they could easily change the default tuning of the banjo but they take this attitude towards their product. Now im definitely not buying this.

by Squanchy187

Love Fretonomy . So much that I paid for the addons. Only to realize Fretonomy has one major flaw for which I’d advise any guitar player against it. I wish I could get my $ back.

The fretboard is not oriented per your view as a guitarist. That is, on Fretonomy , the 12th fret is on your left. If you were fretting in real life, the 12th fret would be to your right hand side. I actually feel the confusion that training on Fretonomy and then on my guitar creates.

Developers please fix this. It’s a simple counter clockwise 180 degree flip of the fretboard.

by NightTriker

Updated review:
Fretonomy was fixed so my major complaint about the staff & fretboard game being useless is no longer an issue.

The display on the scale explorer still is very hard to see the fret numbers.

I would now recommend this for folks who want to learn the fretboard.

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Old review:

I was hoping to use this to learn the ukulele fret board, but it is disappointing.

The staff and fretboard game only cares that you hit the correct note name on the fret - even if the note on the staff is an octave above, the game will count it correct if you just hit any note on the fret with the same name. So, I can’t really use it to learn to find the fingering on the fretboard that corresponds to the musical staff.

The fretboard does show some numbers of frets, but they are often hidden by other images, so it’s hard to actually see the fret numbers - even though there is plenty of screen real estate above or below the fretboard.

Perhaps Fretonomy works better for other instruments.

by Icberry

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 Fretonomy , 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!

by Juwan808

I had to update my last review since my previous concerns were addressed. Thank you for the fixes! The name that note layout is great, just like a piano keyboard. No more searching for notes. I really appreciate the response from the development team. Awesome! Thanks again.

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I want to give Fretonomy 5 stars but I just can’t. Not until this one issue is resolved. When playing the “Name that note” game, the main notes are set up in order. That is of course expected. But when you tap the flat key or # if that’s your thing, the order of the notes above don’t make any sense. Why are they not set up in the same order as a piano? Ab should be above A, Bb above B etc.? Instead there are redundant notes, 2 B’s 2 E’s…. WTH! Fix this please! I shouldn’t have to search for the notes. How is that helping me study? If it’s set up like a piano, the visual representation will connect across both instruments and the intervals will be correct. Please fix!!

by Noahfy

I decided recently I want to learn all the notes of the fretboard and memorize as many chord shapes as I can and this is the perfect app to help me do it! Love the interface too, clean and easy to use.

My only suggestion would be this. For both "name note" and "color match" the zoom feature is rather limited. It works well with a selection of 5 or so frets, though when I adjust my selection to frets 1-12 and put zoom on I am still shown 21 frets of the fretboard. If you could make the zoom focus in on the specific frets selected in settings that would be awesome. Other than that I'm very happy with Fretonomy !

by John Frusciantes Niece

I never write reviews but I figured Fretonomy was worth it. The entire interface is clean and simple to use. There are a variety of different game modes to choose from, each of which teaching you different important theory lessons. I’ve been playing for about 2 years now and have just started to really dive into learning how to play for sheet music fluently and also to expand my knowledge of music theory. Fretonomy has made it very easy for me to do so as I am quickly memorizing shapes and patterns on the fretboard. 5/5 stars. Very glad I found this!

Well done!

by Mr Gooms

Before finding Fretonomy, my quest to memorize the fretboard consisted of: creating a bunch of fretboard diagrams, making a bunch of copies, then repeatedly filling in the notes, over and over and over. Lots of reasons why this wasn’t the best most efficient plan, honestly. For one thing, it became too easy to just fill in the gaps based on the notes I had already labeled, which was sort of cheating, but unavoidable. All that being said, Fretonomy is PERFECT. I made more progress in three days than the two months before I started with it. Really can’t say enough. Thanks so much for making this!

by Brett Sj.

I installed a bunch of these guitar scale, chord, etc type tool apps to try to find the best one before I bought one and I must say, I think this one is the best. 🌝 Thanks to the developer and great job!

My only two cents is that it would be even better to have it as an option for Fretonomy rotated or not. That's it though, everything else is miles ahead of the other apps I've found and they even wanted monthly subscriptions!

Thanks again to the developer for the one time payment option and everything. 👍

by FranzzU

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 Fretonomy. 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.

by AdamMoskowitz

Love Fretonomy! Really starting focusing on upping my guitar game recently and Fretonomy is an awesome way to study guitar & music theory while away from the real thing. The games are very fun and range from simple to very challenging based on your settings. I came across a bug that caused it to freeze & close in the ‘Name Chord’ game and let the developer know, he had it fixed in a couple days, so just hit that contact button if you happen to hit a speed bump. Again try this, I really appreciate Fretonomy. 🎸🎶

by Ragtime Willie

There’s so much interesting stuff in Fretonomy that I have to give it at least three stars for effort. However, the first thing I tried, the scale explorer, is not correct. I selected A Major Pentatonic and Fretonomy shows that the scale consists of the root, M2, M3, P4, and P5. It’s hard to want to learn from a source that isn’t correct. Hopefully, this is just an isolated issue.

Edit: the developer acted quickly to fix the scale issue. Fretonomy really has a lot of good tools, so I’m changing my review. Fretonomy is well worth having.

by ThisNicknameisAlreadyTakkken

I used another app to memorize the fretboard but somehow this one feels more fun and engaging. I’m not sure if it’s just my phone or if Fretonomy freezes every time I try to close it. Currently I’m using the free version and therefore I get some ads in the middle of the games. I’m going to pay for it as it’s very well deserved and hope the ads disappear, otherwise it could be annoying :-)

by PatootiStarbooti

Better than I expected. I’m using it for Guitar and it has exactly what I need to learn the fretboard in a fun and entertaining way.
More than just the notes, the scales and chords are extremely helpful.

The way this program is configured makes everything easy to understand and very user friendly. I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to memorize the fretboard and learn scales and also chords.

by Hosehead127

I use FretTrainer when I have 5-10minutes to spare...at the bus stop, waiting for my girlfriend, microwaving a burrito, etc. I have found it very helpful for memorizing the fretboard. It is a strong complement to training with a guitar.

One suggestion for improvement is to include the note sounds when you hit them (in the fret board memorizer, for example.) That would help with ear training too and would be very useful!

by TheJohnny9

This is my first review ever, and this could quite possibly be my favorite app ever. I’ve played for decades and never mastered all the notes on a guitar fretboard. Now I finally have a simple and intuitive tool that is helping me achieve this goal. Add in the additional features I’m not quite ready for and it may go down as the most valuable 3 dollars I’ve spent as a guitar player.

by Fingerstyle Guitar

This is a great app! I purchased the guitar pack. I almost know all the notes on the fretboard with just 1 day of using it! I have a problem with the sound though. I don’t hear any sounds when I pick a note. It also would be better if the “Staff and Fretboard” game went past 6 frets, but I still love Fretonomy though. I wish I could figure out how to get the sound working.

by Scottadams364

This is the first app review I’ve ever written, I just had to show my love. I downloaded Fretonomy 4 days ago, have put about 6 hours into it according to the stats, and I’ve got all natural notes up to the 12th fret pretty well memorized within a 1-2 second reaction time. If you break it up into chunks as you go and find little tricks to recall the notes, Fretonomy provides the random repetition needed to really commit it to memory. Having modes to both name the note shown, and find the note named, ensures you understand the fretboard both ways.

The scale explorer has been helpful to find patterns, and I’m sure it will be way more helpful as I continue with Fretonomy . I haven’t found the chord game to be super useful honestly, but still the $2 purchase is paying off in spades. Well done, a must app for any guitar player.

by BuffaloShrimp

This is far and away the best graphic representation of a fretboard I have ever seen. The screen is uncluttered. The fretboard and symbols are large and easy to read via the iPad on the music stand. The exercises are equally well designed - each simple and effective. It doesn’t have audio transport functionality - meaning, it won’t roll through scales with you. Fine. Don’t need it. And, perhaps, even glad it doesn’t. I prefer the simplicity. And the interval exercises are making me a fretboard boss! Super for Nashville number system. I do wish the scales were grouped by type (ie Church modes, symmetrical) rather than alphabetically, though. And the addition of a small wheel to change keys via cycle of 4ths stationed near the fretboard would be most welcome. Otherwise, Wow! Thanks for the excellent application.

by Whyjoessl

What a great app. Learning the notes on the fingerboard has always been difficult for me. With Fretonomy, I can be sitting on a bus, an airplane, or anywhere and be able to memorize the locations of notes on the fingerboard as well as on the staff. You are able to focus on a particular range, say the 7 to 10 frets, and drill just on the area where you need improvement.