Guitar Fretboard
Any scale or chord drawn on the neck, in seventeen tunings or one you type yourself, right-handed or left.
C Major (Ionian)
C D E F G A B
Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 · Open strings: E A D G B E · 59 places to play them
| String | Open | Frets |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | 0 E · 1 F · 3 G · 5 A · 7 B · 8 C* · 10 D · 12 E · 13 F · 15 G |
| 2 | B | 0 B · 1 C* · 3 D · 5 E · 6 F · 8 G · 10 A · 12 B · 13 C* · 15 D |
| 3 | G | 0 G · 2 A · 4 B · 5 C* · 7 D · 9 E · 10 F · 12 G · 14 A |
| 4 | D | 0 D · 2 E · 3 F · 5 G · 7 A · 9 B · 10 C* · 12 D · 14 E · 15 F |
| 5 | A | 0 A · 2 B · 3 C* · 5 D · 7 E · 8 F · 10 G · 12 A · 14 B · 15 C* |
| 6 | E | 0 E · 1 F · 3 G · 5 A · 7 B · 8 C* · 10 D · 12 E · 13 F · 15 G |
Pick a scale or a chord and see every place it falls on the neck. Seventeen tunings from a ukulele to a nine-string, or one you type in yourself; up to twenty-four frets; note names or scale degrees; and a mirrored neck for left-handed players — with the same diagram as a table, for reading without the picture.
How it works
A fret is one semitone. The note on a string at fret n is its open note moved up n semitones, so once the tuning is known every position on the diagram follows from arithmetic rather than from a table somebody typed.
The notes themselves come from the same engine as the scale finder and the chord finder, which means the neck cannot disagree with the rest of the site. If a scale gains a note there, it appears here too.
Spelling is carried through rather than flattened. Ask for G♭ major and the fourth degree is marked C♭, not B — the same fret, a different note, and the one a player reading in that key needs to see.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the same note appear in several places?
Because it does on a guitar. The neck repeats: any note you can play on one string turns up on the others at different frets, which is exactly what makes the instrument hard to learn and worth having a diagram for.
Does the diagram show octaves?
No, and that is deliberate. It marks every place each note of the scale can be played, without saying which octave it sounds in. That is what a scale diagram is for, and it is also why a re-entrant tuning like a ukulele's works here without qualification.
Are these fingerings?
No. It shows you which notes belong, not which ones to hold down at once. Where a chord is chosen you get every place its notes appear, which is the raw material for a voicing rather than a voicing itself.
Where do the tunings come from?
They are conventions, and they are listed rather than derived — no rule of music produces E A D G B E. Everything else on the page is worked out from the tuning you pick and the fact that a fret is a semitone.
What do the scale degrees mean?
They name each note by its distance from the root: P1 is the root, M3 a major third, m3 a minor third, P5 a perfect fifth. Switching the labels to degrees is how you see a shape rather than a key, which is what makes it movable.
Why is there no twelve-string?
Because it would be the six-string diagram over again. The doubled courses of a twelve-string are tuned in unison or at the octave, and this diagram works in pitch classes — it marks where a note can be played, not which octave it sounds in. A twelve-string option would add six rows and not one new position. Pick the six-string tuning: it is the same neck.
What can I put in my own tuning?
Between three and twelve strings, lowest first, written as note names: E A D G B E, or F# B E A D G B E, or D♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ D♭. Spaces, commas or dashes all separate them, and an accidental can be written #, b, ♯ or ♭. Nothing about the diagram needs the tuning to be one anybody has named.
Good to know
- The tunings are the only listed thing here. Every position is computed from the tuning and the notes, so the diagram cannot drift away from the scales the rest of the site produces.
- The diagram is drawn on the server and needs no scripting. The same information is also a table, because a picture made of circles says nothing to a screen reader.
- Fret markers are shown where instrument builders put them, which is another convention rather than a rule.
- Six-string tuning is a convention everyone shares. The eight- and nine-string entries are not on that footing: they are the tunings those instruments are usually sold in, each adding a fourth below the last, and plenty of players use something else. If yours differs, type it in rather than trusting the list.
- The left-handed view is the same diagram mirrored: the nut moves to the right and the fret numbers count leftwards, which is the neck as a left-handed player looks down at it. The strings keep their order, nothing is recalculated — a mirror is a decision about the picture, not about the music — and the table below is unchanged, because "string 6, fret 5" has no left or right.