How to Build a Chord Progression in StringScales

Open the fretboard, drop in the chords you want to practice, tag each chord with a scale, then press play. StringScales plays a live backing band in your chosen key, tempo, and style while the fretboard lights up the notes for each chord as it goes. You can do all of this without an account — a free account only adds saving so you can pick your progressions up on another device.

Before you start

• No account needed. The progression builder, scale annotations, and backing band are available directly in the browser.
• A free account is optional and only adds saving progressions across devices.
• Pick your instrument and tuning first if you're not on a standard guitar setup. The fretboard diagram follows your instrument (guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele) and redraws when you change tuning, so the lit notes match what you're actually holding.

Step 1: Drop in the chords

Add the chords you want to practice to the progression. There's no stated limit on how many chords, loops, or progressions you can build.

If you'd rather not start from a blank timeline, load a preset progression instead:

• Presets from popular classics, or
• Presets browsed by scale, so a progression is matched to the scale you want to use (the site's example: a Hungarian minor gets changes that actually fit it).

Step 2: Tag each chord with a scale

This is the part that makes the fretboard useful. For every chord in the progression, assign the scale you want to play over it. The site's own example tags:

• Dorian on one chord
• Altered on another
• Harmonic minor on the turnaround

Because each chord carries its own scale tag, the lit notes change chord by chord rather than showing one scale for the whole progression. That's what lets you practice something like a Dorian vamp that turns into an altered sound and resolves through harmonic minor.

Step 3: Shape the band in the playback controls

Before or while playing, set how the backing band sounds:

Step 4: Press play and follow the lit notes

Hit play and StringScales performs the band live in any key, tempo, and style. The fretboard lights up the correct notes for each chord in time, so you follow the lit positions chord by chord instead of guessing.

What you can see on the fretboard

• Any scale, any key — major and minor, the modes, harmonic and melodic minor, and exotic scales.
• Layout options — 3-notes-per-string or CAGED; one position at a time or the whole neck; vertical or horizontal; left- or right-handed.
• Display choices — pentatonic boxes, blues notes, single position or full neck.

Common snags

• The notes don't match what you expect. Check your tuning and instrument setting first — the diagram redraws to fit those, so a wrong tuning setting shifts every lit note.
• You can't find your progressions later. Without an account, progressions aren't saved across devices. Create a free account if you want to keep them.
• The scale tag feels wrong over a chord. Re-tag that individual chord rather than changing the whole progression — each chord carries its own scale.

Quick recap

1. Open the fretboard (no account required).
2. Add chords, or load a preset by style or by scale.
3. Tag each chord with its scale — Dorian, altered, harmonic minor, etc.
4. Set style, tempo, mixing, and concert pitch.
5. Press play and follow the lit notes.