Features

Practice transport

Play, pause, stop, loop, count in, and follow the Stage metronome tempo. Scales can run ascending, descending, up/down, in thirds or fourths, and as 3- or 4-note sequences. The sounding marker/key/note is highlighted in real time.

Chord & voice-leading study

Play a selected practical guitar voicing, piano inversion, block chord, or arpeggio. Compare two chord boards to see common tones and nearest voice movement in semitones.

Instrument study systems

Fretboard boards include CAGED, 3-notes-per-string, pentatonic-box, triads-by-string-set, octave/root, chord-tone targeting, and horizontal single-string study, plus optional suggested fingering.

Validated practice

Turn a board into a find-the-root or find-the-interval exercise. Answer by tapping the board, playing a connected MIDI controller, or using microphone pitch checking. Results contribute to concept-level practice history.

Progression & song playback

Progression Overview boards can play the complete progression at the Stage tempo, preferring the selected practical/piano voicings already on the Stage. Song Builder can play measures in order and follows each event's beat duration.

Teacher presentation mode

Present one Stage board at a time with next/previous, reveal/hide answers, and board playback controls. Fullscreen is used when the browser supports it, while the Stage remains usable without fullscreen.

MIDI & microphone practice

Web MIDI can validate notes played from a connected keyboard/controller. Microphone pitch checking uses the tuner engine for instrument practice over HTTPS.

Concept progress

NOTE HINT records practice by concept—not only by pattern—including interval finding, board exercises, playback study, voice-leading work, MIDI/microphone checks, and progression playback.

Generated fretboards

Scales, modes, chords, and arpeggios are calculated from musical intervals against the current tuning instead of stored as fixed dot locations.

Piano boards

Study patterns on configurable 13–88 key ranges with octave-accurate note labels, readable white/black-key markers, root-position/inversion chord views, and compact Piano chord boards.

Staff boards

Show the same scale, mode, arpeggio, or chord as standard notation with treble/bass clef, real pitch register, accidentals, and time-signature context. Linked Staff boards follow the same root/pattern changes as Fretboard or Piano.

TAB boards

View stringed-instrument patterns as tuning-aware tablature. Chords use the same practical/theory position engine as fretboards, so changing tuning or chord position changes the TAB instead of showing a disconnected diagram.

Progression Library

Transpose official and user-created Roman-numeral progressions into any key, preview the resulting chords, and add complete Fretboard, Piano, Staff, or TAB study blocks to the Stage. Choose unique-chord or every-step layouts, one playable chord position or all-position study, and transpose the entire block from its Progression Overview. Includes common Pop, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Minor, Modal, Classical, and theory progressions.

Song Builder

Build songs by measure with chord, note, and rest events, beat durations, section labels, practical chord shapes, staff notation, TAB, and Roman-numeral context against the song key.

Classes, lessons & assignments

Teachers create classes, group Patterns/Boards/Scenes/Songs into lessons, publish assignments, provide starter material, review student Scene/Song submissions, and return feedback. Teacher and Student are class-specific roles, so one account can teach one class and study in another. Students can join with a class code.

Theory Lab & study mode

Construct patterns from intervals, identify exact library matches, save custom formulas, track learning status, and turn any generated board into a roots-only or hidden-answer study prompt without duplicating the pattern.

Practical chord positions

Standard guitar now prioritizes curated CAGED/common chord forms instead of treating every mathematically valid note combination as a textbook shape. Supported ukulele and mandolin chords also use curated common forms. Switch a board to Practical, Practical + theory, or Theory-generated positions whenever you want to compare instrument vocabulary with pure fretboard theory.

Manual pattern building

Start with a blank fretboard, use seven primary and seven alternate marker presets with keyboard shortcuts/auto-advance, save the exact board, or convert the marked pitches into a reusable pattern formula.

Pattern chord builder

Build chords from every non-manual fretboard or Piano pattern: I–VII diatonic triads for seven-note scales/modes and tone-rooted chord sets for blues, pentatonic, arpeggio, custom, and chord patterns. Results keep the source instrument view.

Instrument & tuning engine

Support for standard and extended guitar, bass, ukulele, baritone ukulele, mandolin, alternate tunings, and per-string editing. Admin sets site-wide Stage defaults; each account can override its own instrument, tuning, fret range, pattern, board width, display, and chord-position source.

Persistent Stage tabs

Keep multiple working Stages open at once. Draft tabs are preserved automatically while you move around NOTE HINT, with close warnings only when a working draft would actually be removed.

Independent boards

Each board can use its own root, pattern, tuning, range, display, size, and orientation without changing the rest of the Stage.

Selective link groups

Link only the properties that should synchronize across selected boards: root, pattern, position, display, tuning, or orientation.

Saved Boards

Save an individual configured panel for reuse in other Scenes without carrying Scene-specific link membership with it.

Saved Scenes

Save the complete Stage with all panels, layout, links, practice settings, and musical state. Rename, duplicate, update, share, or delete owned Scenes.

Pattern libraries

Official NOTE HINT patterns, personal patterns, and followed shared patterns remain separated and revision-aware.

Tuner

A browser microphone chromatic tuner that works alongside the current instrument and alternate tuning workflow.

Metronome & simple drums

Practice with a click or a small set of drum grooves. Drum mode has independent drum volume and optional click mix.

Sharing without destructive updates

Followers pin revisions. Source changes create update choices instead of silently rewriting another user's study material.

Free / Paid / Subscription access

Feature limits are enforced server-side and administered from NOTE HINT. Square handles the payment or recurring subscription transaction.

Education management

Admin → Education shows who is teaching or enrolled, every class connection, roster roles, class status, lesson/assignment counts, and submissions awaiting review. Admin can open any class and manage non-owner memberships.

Administrator control

Admins always receive unrestricted NOTE HINT access and can manage users, education, official patterns, access plans, page content, billing configuration, and diagnostics.

Dark & light modes

A clean interface with no photographic textures or gradients, designed to keep the musical diagrams visually dominant.