How to Get Started with #fretflip

Updated

Open fretflip.com and start with the interactive fretboard diagram on the homepage — you can click any note to edit it immediately, no account needed. The site is an online guitar fretboard tool for viewing, editing, and sharing scales and chords. If you want to save or share your own charts, you'll need to log in; the page shows a "Log In" option but doesn't state whether accounts are free, so treat that as unconfirmed.

First steps on the interactive fretboard

The homepage puts the tool front and center. Here's what you can do right away:

  1. Pick a preset. A dropdown next to the diagram is set to "Minor Pentatonic" by default. Alternatives include Major Pentatonic, Minor Blues, Major Blues, all seven modes (Ionian through Locrian), melodic minor, and a range of symmetric and altered scales.
  2. Click to edit. The label "Click to edit" sits under the diagram — clicking notes on the fretboard adds or removes them from the current pattern.
  3. Change the key. A "Tonic / Key" selector lets you move the whole pattern to any root, from E through B♭.
  4. Switch tuning. A tuning menu covers Standard, B Standard, A Standard, Drop D, E♭ Standard, Drop C, Open G, Open D, Open E, DADGAD, All Fourths, plus 7-string and 8-string variants, bass tunings, and ukulele tunings.

The notes are labeled with scale degrees (1, ♭2, 2, ♭3, 3, 4, ♯4, 5, ♭6, 6, ♭7, 7), so you see the interval relationship, not just the note name.

Use presets and templates to skip setup

Rather than building from scratch, the preset list is organized by what you're trying to do:

Category Presets
Scales Minor/Major Pentatonic, Minor/Major Blues, 7 Modes, All Guitar Scales, 3NPS and CAGED-shapes
Chords Common Chords, Power Chords, 7th Chords, Shell Voicings, Extended Chords
Theory Notes Explained, Scale Degrees, Harmonizing Scales, The CAGED System
Arpeggios Major Triad Arpeggios, Minor Triad Arpeggios
Practice Start Soloing, Modes and Pitch, Modal chord progressions, Find all Notes, Connect the pentatonics, 4nps scale patterns

If you're not sure where to begin, the "Where do I start?" entry is the site's own suggested starting point.

Read the documentation

Three docs entries are listed alongside the presets:

  • Quick start guide — for getting oriented fast
  • The interactive fretboard — explains how the diagram itself works
  • The Complete Guide — the full reference

Work through the quick start first if the diagram's controls aren't obvious, then use the interactive fretboard doc when you want to understand editing behavior in detail.

Log in to save and share

The tool's stated purpose includes creating and sharing fretboard charts. Editing works without logging in, but saving your custom charts and sharing them with students or other players requires an account — the "Log In" link appears in the preset area. The page doesn't specify what login requires or whether it costs anything, so check that on the site itself before committing.

Who this suits

  • Self-taught players who want to see a scale or chord mapped across the neck in a chosen tuning and key, then adjust it by clicking.
  • Teachers building custom diagrams to hand to students — the "Teach guitar" framing and share function point at this use case.
  • Players on non-standard instruments, since the tuning list extends to 7- and 8-string guitars, multiple bass configurations, and ukulele.

If you only need a static reference chart, a printed scale book does the same job. #fretflip's value is in the editing and sharing loop — changing a pattern and sending it to someone.