We provide a series of music lessons for the guitar to help players build the necessary skills to improvise freely over the entire fretboard. The lessons use the Fret Ferret™ education game, which you can interact with using your mouse, phone, or your own guitar played into the microphone. Students don’t have to waste time reviewing content they already know: AI acceleration provided by Bandito™ automatically builds a user profile as they interact with Fret Ferret™, and focuses the questions on their problem areas. To learn more about how Bandito™ powers Fret Ferret™, read our white paper or watch a brief explanatory video below.
Douglas presenting Fret Ferret™ to a group of machine learning and user experience researchers at ACM CHI 2022
We presented Fret Ferret™, along with the techniques and engineering that make it possible, at the top conference in computer-human interaction, known as ACM SIG CHI Conference on Human Factors in in Computing Systems (aka CHI 2022), in New Orleans. Not only were we recognized for contributing novel technology and interface design to the field, but visitors were further stunned to discover our state-of-the-art system was so stable and reliable that they could use it right away in their own homes. Visit the conference proceedings for more information.
Fret Ferret™ is currently being used at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, to advance its guitar students, and we are collecting feedback from interested parties to implement features that better engage students throughout their learning process. However, we can’t do this alone. When you purchase merchandise from The Fret Ferret™ Store, not only will you be the coolest coyote on the block, your support also goes towards maintenance costs so that Fret Ferret™ can continue to provide quality, personalized music education for everyone in the world. You can also support us by clicking the PayPal Donate button below.
As a long time guitar player, I know having a visualization of the
modality of the fretboard is a key still to have and tune. When I saw
FretFerret, I immedately knew how it could learn my hurdles and help
focus my attention on improving my playing. I've never seen a tool quite
like it; I see its value to new and experienced players alike.
David S.
Scientist
Lesson 1
A budding improviser must first have instantaneous recall of the notes on the fretboard. At first, this will come slowly, but with 15 minutes of practice every day, it will only take a few weeks to master. We recommend that the student start off by identifying the same note across all 5 unique positions on the fretboard, then to zero in on identifying the notes by string and by fret:
Lesson 2
The chords, scales, and melodies that an improviser will play are created by intervals, and being able to perform this kind of visual math on the fretboard is key to navigating the fretboard and constructing those components.
We break up the interval lesson into three sub-stages:
First, we recommend the student to begin with identifying 3 copies of an interval near the reference location, then to identify individual copies of an interval by string and by fret. This visual reckoning re-creates many elements of the CAGED, three-notes-per-string, and Berklee systems of fretboard education, but our lessons drill the skills much more thoroughly than memorized patterns can achieve alone.
Second, we recommend that the student work with intervals identified by the name of the reference note as well as the interval, rather than from a visual location, since this requires an abstract calculation that is necessary for the later lessons and for improvisation in general (e.g., it is important that the student instantly recall that the Major 6th from B is a G#, and where to find the G# on the fretboard).
Finally, having practiced note identification by string and fret, as well as the abstract math needed to identify intervals by name, the student is ready to identify far-away intervals by string and by fret. This skill is critical to gaining the ability to “teleport” around the fretboard, but it is actually constructed from three sub-skills: first the student translates the presented location into a note name, then they abstractly calculate the note name of the interval, and finally they identify the location of the new note name on the fretboard. At first the multiple steps may be intimidating, but the student will be amazed how the process quickens with practice!
Once the student has mastered the three stages, we encourage them to try them again with the the option unchecked, to add the element of ear-training to the curriculum.
Lesson 3
Once the student has mastered the three stages of interval training in Lesson 2, they can develop their ear by removing the visual display of the played intervals. This skill is crucial for teaching the student how to provide their own instantaneous feedback, and for developing their connection between aural imagination (the melody they hear in their head and want to play) and its physical implementation (actually playing the imaginary melody on the instrument). In Fret Ferret, this is accomplished by unchecking “Show Intervals, Chord Qualities, and Scale Types”, and we provide the corresponding links below:
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Lastly, after the student has tuned their ear to quickly identify intervals, they can work with sequences of intervals, building off their answer to the previous question in rapid-fire succession:
Lesson 4
Having mastered the notes and intervals on the fretboard, the student can challenge themselves to quickly spell chords and scales by reference note. We provide a few starting points, but the student is encouraged to use “Randomizer Settings” to expand the selection of chord qualities and scale types they are asked to spell. By unchecking “Show Intervals, Chord Qualities, and Scale Types”, the element of ear-training can be added.
Lesson 5
With the core skills developed in Lesson 1 through 4, the student can now play into the microphone, and see how their melodies line up with the scale, chord, or chord progression, with their notes highlighted in red. We recommend the student to use the “Random Root” button to challenge themselves to play in keys they wouldn’t come up with on their own.
Lesson 6
Daily practice at an intermediate-to-advanced level involves two parts. The first is to review and to continue improving the core skills covered in Lessons 1 through 4, quickly moving between different types of questions to force the type of context-switching encountered in live improvisation and soloing. In Fret Ferret, this is accomplished through “meta mode”, and Bandito Scholar allows the student to adjust their personalized difficulty level as needed.
The second is to move through two-chord vamps in various modes, playing the full scale on the tonic chord, and arpeggios on the alternate chord, while changing the root randomly when it becomes comfortable. The goal is to hit chord tones on the down beat, with an emphasis on the third, which is highlighted on the fretboard. This practice is not evaluated by the computer, but by the user’s ear, as we are beginning to bring out their musical voice. We recommend the student systematically go through the list of two-chord vamps provided in the pre-loaded list of chord loops to encourage a wide breadth of exposure.
These two practice sessions, executed every day, will encourage a nimble mind that can quickly react to changing harmonies while playing true to the parent scale.
Lesson 7
In addition to viewing your soloing through the lens of a parent scale, you can also view it as a sequence of chords where each transition offers a handful of common voice leading opportunities, which is a common approach in jazz soloing where keys can change from bar to bar or aren’t clearly defined. For example, when moving through the circle of fifths (E-A-D-G-C), the fourth becomes the root, the sixth becomes the third, and the root becomes the fifth. On the other hand, when moving through the circle of fourths (Ab-Eb-Bb-F-C), the fifth becomes the root, the seventh becomes the third, and the second becomes the fifth.
In the following sequence of exercises, the soloist goes through the circle of fifths and fourths, while referencing the notes relative to the chord root as opposed to the scale root. The student may start with “ghost notes” indicating the target notes to hit in the next chord, and then remove this visual aid as their memory takes over.
Lesson 8
In addition to helping with solos, Fret Ferret is an excellent composition tool. Using the provided array of roman numeral buttons, the student can compose original chord progressions and sing along, using the microphone input to document where they are singing relative to the harmony and the scale. Moreover, because the ear naturally picks up on the highest played note, Fret Ferret allows the user to select whether a random note from one of the chord tones and/or among the available tensions in the scale is played an octave higher with each chord. Forcing this randomness helps composers break out of ruts created by always playing chords with the same fingerings that end up highlighting the same notes.