Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#61

Post by machak » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 8:50 PM UTC

pdpi wrote: post #59

machak wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be quite intimidating at first I guess. It makes (starts to make) sense once you turn off some shapes and start connecting them together one by one. I am not sure if you had a look at the "pentanizer" parts, but that one is even worse at first sight, but once you isolate certain parts I think (very subjective) it becomes helpful if you study interval parts.

I have one bit of constructive criticism for you. Every single Major/Minor scale should have exactly one each of ABCDEFG, so that written music makes sense — each line/space corresponds to a "letter", and the key signature tells you how sharp/flat that "letter" is. The tool gets this wrong for example in C# major, where you should have the 3rd step be E# instead of F, and the 7th step to be B# instead of C. A particu…

Hi, yes, that's a known issue. I added flat/sharp button as an option, but, I think that makes things even worse. I am working on a fix for this...

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#62

Post by mikesabat » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 8:59 PM UTC

tephra wrote: post #52

teabee89 wrote: post #41

I'm a self-taught moderate guitar player and I feel like this is really cool, but I don't understand any of it. Can someone explain how to read this, and what to do?

Let's give it a shot. So first I have marked "Pentatonic Minor" and "A" as our key since this is probably a scale that you know. What you are seeing are all the notes in the scale laid out on the fret board. If you look at fret 5 (second dot) and starting from the E string you'll see a red dot with a R in it. This is the "Root" of the scale, namely A. The next note is on the 8th fret and has a "b3" in it. You read th…

This is a good explanation. One thing to add though. With the interface of the site, you can select a colored circle and that will highlight the position where you can play the scale (or mode).

So if you highlight the red circle at the bottom, it will show you a version and position of the scale starting with the root note - A as noted above.

If you highlight the yellow circle at the bottom, it will highlight the scale/position starting with the second note and ending with the 9th. This is called a Mode.

A Mode is when you play a scale, but start or emphasize a note other than the root note. Different modes have a different sound/feel the same way that a major, minor or 7th chords has different feels.

So that is another layer to the page.

Unfortunately, I learned all of this theory, but quit playing.

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#63

Post by yig » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

tephra wrote: post #52

teabee89 wrote: post #41

I'm a self-taught moderate guitar player and I feel like this is really cool, but I don't understand any of it. Can someone explain how to read this, and what to do?

Let's give it a shot. So first I have marked "Pentatonic Minor" and "A" as our key since this is probably a scale that you know. What you are seeing are all the notes in the scale laid out on the fret board. If you look at fret 5 (second dot) and starting from the E string you'll see a red dot with a R in it. This is the "Root" of the scale, namely A. The next note is on the 8th fret and has a "b3" in it. You read th…

The A Major scale is A B C# D E Gb G#

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#64

Post by Grue3 » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:09 PM UTC

markvdb wrote: post #55

Professional guitar teacher here. I had to look for a few minutes myself before this started making some sense. I'm sorry to say that I can't feed to this to my students as it is. On one hand, it's extremely information dense. All the colors! On the other hand, it seems to lack crucial information that might make it worthwile. Sorry if that sounds very negative. I do appreciate the effort a lot! And I di see potentia…

Self-taught (shitty) guitar player here.

The diagram made perfect sense to me. In fact, I sketched a diagram like that when I was practicing playing every scale in every position. First I noticed that each pentatonic scale shape has 2 minor third intervals and 3 major second intervals on five strings (sixth string is always the same as first) and they kind of "loop around". And if you put the five possible shapes side to side in a certain order, they also form a loop. And then I extended that looping pattern to septatonic (major/minor) scale. I don't know if I'm making any sense right now, but it made me instantly memorize all the scales in a way that wasn't explained in any of the guitar tutorials on the Internet I've seen. Until now, I guess.

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#65

Post by louhike » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:09 PM UTC

tephra wrote: post #52

teabee89 wrote: post #41

I'm a self-taught moderate guitar player and I feel like this is really cool, but I don't understand any of it. Can someone explain how to read this, and what to do?

Let's give it a shot. So first I have marked "Pentatonic Minor" and "A" as our key since this is probably a scale that you know. What you are seeing are all the notes in the scale laid out on the fret board. If you look at fret 5 (second dot) and starting from the E string you'll see a red dot with a R in it. This is the "Root" of the scale, namely A. The next note is on the 8th fret and has a "b3" in it. You read th…

I do not know if the explanation is on the website but I didn't find it. I had difficulties to understand the website even though I have basic understanding of music theory. Maybe an help icon (?) with an explanation would help?

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#66

Post by tribby » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:13 PM UTC

cnasc wrote: post #21

Pretty cool! I made something like this a few years ago, but nowhere near as sophisticated. One suggestion: as of late I've been playing guitar in perfect 4ths tuning, and it would be helpful to be able to change the tuning of individual strings on your tool to enable that (and any other alternate tuning)

if you're looking for scales in alternate tunings, an old website called "all guitar chords"[1] has got you covered, even if it's not as pretty an interface as OP's site. I found it very useful years ago when re-working some hindustani music for guitar in open C tuning. it's one of those sites I'm always a little surprised hasn't just vanished from the internet.

also, just because it's a saturday, I suggest anyone into open tunings on guitar check out this list of tunings used by james blackshaw.[2] his music is a lot of fun to play.

1. http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php

2. http://archive.fo/uqH3d

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#67

Post by gmcnaught » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

Love this.

One thing I’ve been doing lately is overlaying chords over the scale to do something similar to the CAGED method.

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#68

Post by ChristianGeek » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 9:45 PM UTC

machak wrote: post #37

Exuma wrote: post #19

The last row of buttons don't work on mobile (they don't update the view)

to be honest, I targeted desktop audience, and running linux (and android) myself, I am bit limited in this (testing) area. I might be getting an iOSmac device soon so that might help. What browser/OS are you using?

The scale name buttons don’t have any effect for me on the iPhone. Their rendered state changes but that’s it.

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#69

Post by narag » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 10:02 PM UTC

tephra wrote: post #52

teabee89 wrote: post #41

I'm a self-taught moderate guitar player and I feel like this is really cool, but I don't understand any of it. Can someone explain how to read this, and what to do?

Let's give it a shot. So first I have marked "Pentatonic Minor" and "A" as our key since this is probably a scale that you know. What you are seeing are all the notes in the scale laid out on the fret board. If you look at fret 5 (second dot) and starting from the E string you'll see a red dot with a R in it. This is the "Root" of the scale, namely A. The next note is on the 8th fret and has a "b3" in it. You read th…

I had understood what the diagram means, actually I have most of this information internalized... not a great guitar player, but I know the theory.

What I don't understand is what can I do with it. What's the typical way of using it?

Re: Show HN: Interactive guitar scales diagrams

#70

Post by narag » Sat, Jun 09, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

yig wrote: post #63

tephra wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's give it a shot. So first I have marked "Pentatonic Minor" and "A" as our key since this is probably a scale that you know. What you are seeing are all the notes in the scale laid out on the fret board. If you look at fret 5 (second dot) and starting from the E string you'll see a red dot with a R in it. This is the "Root" of the scale, namely A. The next note is on the 8th fret and has a "b3" in it. You read th…

The A Major scale is A B C# D E Gb G#

That would be F#, not Gb. Enarmonic but not quite the same.