String Atlas is a free tool for exploring the fretboard, designed to help you practice the guitar and learn scales, modes, chords and the CAGED system with visual references. You can pick a root note, a scale, and a tuning to see where notes lie on the fretboard. Use it for your daily practice routines to learn new patterns, map out new modes, and better see the relationship between notes, scales and chords. Then test it all out while jamming to instantly generated backing tracks to hear them in action.
Scales & Modes
See scales laid out from Ionian to Locrian, and get a better understanding of what they mean. From major to minor, harmonic to melodic, and the pentatonics. See how they connect and relate to each other.
The CAGED system
If you are learning the CAGED system, you can see how all the different shapes lay out on the neck for each scale. Use the tool to help you practice the arpeggios for each note up and down the fretboard.
Chords & Progressions
Look up chord voicings and see their different positions on the neck, then string them together to create your own custom chord progressions to jam along with in the backing track lab.
Backing Tracks
Instantly generate a backing track to any scale you have selected. Jam in real time to learn how it sounds. Turn on harmonic highlighting to understand the notes that fit in the chord progression as they come up.
Fretboard Training
Fretboard training tools to help you learn the individual notes by drilling and testing your knowledge. More advanced training features will be available in the companion iOS and Android apps, coming soon.
Multiple Tunings
Multiple tunings are currently supported, with more coming. Want to test out a new tuning for your guitar but feel a bit lost in the string changes? Get a quick visual reference to bring yourself back up to speed.
Is String Atlas free to use?
For the most part, yes. The scale explorer and the backing track generators are free for you to use as you like! Right now you can sign up for a beta account and get free storage for your progressions and favorite scales, so you can load them on other devices. Saving your stuff to the cloud will not always be free, but access to the tool will not be restricted. There are mobile apps coming with even more advanced features. The same great features of the site will be free on them too, but they will have some great pro features to get even more out of the explorer and backing track generator.
What is the CAGED system?
CAGED is a way of looking at the fretboard to learn how to play in any key across the fretboard. It breaks down 5 major chord and arpeggio patterns for the common scales, C A G E D, and lays them out across the fretboard. This helps you learn easy patterns that you can apply simply by knowing where the root notes are.
Can I use String Atlas on my phone?
Absolutely! The website is fully optimized for mobile, but not only that, soon we are releasing native apps for iOS and Android that will leverage the full power of your device to bring you more advanced features!
Does it support alternate tunings?
Yes. We have some common alternate tunings included now. This allows you to see any scale in different tunings if you want to feel more comfortable playing in them. We are working on adding more hand-verified tunings and on allowing custom tunings.
Each scale has its notes, formula, and a full-neck fretboard diagram.