How to use NOTE HINT

The Stage

The Stage is the main workspace. Add as many independent Fretboard, Piano, Staff, or TAB panels as your access level allows, resize them, reorder them, and arrange a study or teaching layout.

Open working Stages appear as tabs across the top. Use the + in the Stage tab bar to start another Stage without closing the first. Working tabs are kept automatically in this browser, so you can open Patterns, Help, Features, or another NOTE HINT page and return without first saving a Scene. Use the × on a tab to close it; NOTE HINT warns before removing a working draft with unsaved changes.

The Stage rail is intentionally small: + opens one Add Board menu for generated and blank/manual Fretboard, Piano, Staff, and TAB boards; Board controls shows/hides the optional selected-board side panel; Tuner and Metronome open floating panels. On mobile, Tuner and Metronome are also available beside the main navigation button.

Edit board: Every board has a ••• button that opens the full Board Editor dialog. It shows the same applicable board settings as the Selected Board side panel, organized for the current representation. Controls that genuinely cannot apply to that board are omitted. The side panel remains available for users who prefer persistent controls.

Board layout: Use the chevron in a board header to collapse/expand its body. Drag only from the grip handle; the board lifts/fades and insertion cues show where it will land. Removing a board fades it out before the grid closes.

Pattern playback: Use the ▶ button in a musical board header to hear the current scale, mode, arpeggio, or other pattern ascending in pitch order. Open the dedicated Playback accordion in Selected Board or Edit Board for tempo, count-in, Stage-tempo following, loop, sequence order, pause/stop, and chord/arpeggio choices. This is separate from the Stage-level Play notes toggle, which auditions individual clicked/tapped notes.

Boards

A board is one reusable visual panel. It keeps its instrument, tuning, fret range, pattern, display mode, orientation, and other board-specific settings. For stringed boards, Total frets is the board extent while Start fret and End fret define the visible window. Extending End fret grows Total frets when needed; lowering Total frets clamps the visible window so contradictory ranges cannot be saved. Save board as… stores that individual setup in My Boards without saving the rest of the Stage. Choosing Add to Stage from My Boards adds that saved board to the currently active Stage tab.

New regular fretboards always begin as six-string Guitar Standard: E–A–D–G–B–E.

Staff & TAB boards

Staff and TAB are first-class Stage boards in NOTE HINT 3.0. They use the same underlying root and pattern as Fretboard and Piano, which means a linked group can show one musical idea in several representations at once.

Staff boards provide treble, bass, or Grand Staff, pitch-register and time-signature controls. Chords are stacked; scales, modes and arpeggios are shown ascending. TAB boards remain tied to the selected stringed instrument and tuning, and chord TAB uses the same Practical/Theory position engine as the fretboard.

Piano boards

Piano boards use the same interval-based pattern engine as fretboards, but they now have their own keyboard controls. Choose a one- through six-octave span, a 76-key layout, the full 88-key piano, or a custom start note/key count. NOTE HINT labels pitches with their real octave number (for example C3 or F#4), so changing the visible range does not change the musical pitch being shown.

The Show control still switches pattern markers between degrees, notes, and intervals. Piano markers are drawn directly on both white and black keys, with a distinct root marker. Base key labels can show only C notes, every key, or none.

When the current pattern is a chord, Piano boards offer All chord tones, Root position, and every valid inversion for that chord. The voicing octave determines the real pitch register. Root/inversion buttons in the board header can open a compact Piano board, and each compact board keeps its own inversion, octave, and keyboard-range controls.

Patterns

Patterns store musical formulas rather than fixed fret coordinates. That is why a Major scale, mode, chord, or arpeggio remains correct when you change tuning or instrument.

The Pattern Library separates official NOTE HINT presets, My Patterns, and Shared With Me. The Pattern type selector filters the visible library immediately and remembers your last selected type in that browser, and each pattern can be added directly to Guitar, extended guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, or Piano. Add to Stage always adds the new board to the Stage tab that is currently active; it does not create another Stage tab.

Progression Library

Progressions are reusable Roman-numeral chord movements that transpose into any selected key. NOTE HINT includes official Pop, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Minor, Modal, Classical, and Theory examples, while My Progressions stores your own formulas and Shared With Me stores progressions another user has shared with you.

Choose Preview / add to select key, Fretboard/Piano/Staff/TAB representation, instrument, board width, and Practical/Theory chord-position source. The preview shows the transposed chord names before anything is added. You can add the progression before or after the active Stage, or open it in a new Stage tab.

A generated progression study can include its parent scale/mode board plus either one compact board for each unique chord or a board for every progression step. Fretboard/TAB chord boards default to one playable position so the Stage stays readable; choose All positions / chord tones when you specifically want the full-neck comparison. Every generated chord board keeps its own Position control. NOTE HINT preserves the progression's degree labels and chord qualities, so the same I–V–vi–IV preset remains structurally correct in every key. The compact Progression Overview keeps the full order visible and its Key control transposes the whole progression block together.

Pattern Preview & CAGED study

From Patterns, choose Preview to configure the same applicable setup before adding a board: root, representation, display/study view, board accent, instrument/orientation/tuning, string count and dynamic fret range, chord-position source, Piano range/voicing, Staff notation, and playback defaults. On supported standard-tuned guitars, CAGED study regions connect the five C, A, G, E, and D chord-form areas to scales, modes, arpeggios, and chords. CAGED is a fretboard study system, not a separate musical pattern type.

The preview can add the board to the current Stage, add it at the start of the current Stage, or open it in a new Stage tab. Existing guitar boards also expose CAGED study regions under Position / fret range.

Chord positions, inversions & built chords

Select any chord on a fretboard. NOTE HINT distinguishes Practical shapes from Theory-generated voicings. Standard six-string guitar practical mode prioritizes curated CAGED/common forms for supported chord qualities; standard ukulele and mandolin include curated common major/minor forms. If a curated family is not available for the current chord, instrument, or alternate tuning, NOTE HINT clearly falls back to theory-generated voicings instead of pretending the result is a standard published shape.

Playable position sets are given subtle matching outlines on the fretboard. Practical position buttons use shape names where possible (for example C, A, G, E, D forms); theory-generated positions use T1, T2, and so on. Compact chord boards keep their own Position selector so the voicing can be moved without rebuilding the board.

On Piano, chord voicings are represented as Root position and true inversions rather than guitar positions. A Piano chord board can show all chord tones across its visible keyboard or isolate one inversion at a chosen octave. Header voicing buttons can open compact Piano boards for each inversion.

Every non-manual fretboard or Piano pattern gets Build chord controls in the board-header area. Seven-note scales and modes keep the familiar I–VII diatonic triads; blues, pentatonic, other scales, arpeggios, custom patterns, and chords expose a chord-building choice for each unique tone in the current pattern. Chord/arpeggio sources reuse their core chord quality from each available root. A chord built from a fretboard stays a compact fretboard; a chord built from Piano stays a compact Piano board.

Blank / manual boards

The Add Board menu includes Blank fretboard, Blank piano, Blank staff, and Blank TAB when the representation is available to your access level. Fretboard and TAB place notes at exact string/fret locations, Piano places them on exact MIDI-register keys, and Staff stores written pitches/registers. Manual boards include a 0 · Neutral no-color marker, seven primary color presets, and seven alternate outline presets. Press 0 for Neutral, 1–7 for primary colors, or hold Ctrl/Option/Alt with 1–7 for the alternate set. Press A to toggle marker auto-advance and P to show/hide the Stage side panel.

Choose whether marker text shows the marker number, note name, interval, custom text, or nothing. Click the board itself—or the live preview inside Edit Board—to add/remove notes. Blank Staff can span multiple lightweight measures, allows repeated pitches as separate note placements, supports Quick Chord in the active measure, and can play the phrase in Staff order from left to right. Staff also accepts an exact written pitch such as C4 or F#3. Save board preserves exact locations, measures, registers, and marker choices; Save notes as pattern still converts the unique pitch classes into a reusable formula in My Patterns.

Link groups

Boards are independent by default. Put selected boards into Group A, B, C, or D when you want them to change together. For each group you can independently link the root/key, musical pattern, fret range, note display, tuning, and orientation.

This lets a guitar and piano follow the same key and mode without forcing them to share instrument-specific settings.

Tunings & instruments

Choose an instrument and one of its official tuning presets, or edit individual strings. Saved custom tunings appear in My Tunings. Changing tuning recalculates generated musical patterns immediately.

Scenes

A working Stage tab and a saved Scene are intentionally different. Stage tabs are automatic working drafts for day-to-day exploration. A Scene is the named server-side version you intentionally keep in My Scenes.

A Scene saves the whole Stage: every board, board order and size, tuning, selected pattern and revision, fret range, display settings, link groups, tempo, groove, and practice settings. Use Save scene to create/update the active Scene. Once a Scene has been saved, Copy scene creates a separate Scene from the current Stage.

Scenes have their own CRUD library. You can also rename a Scene directly from My Scenes. To combine saved material with what you are already working on, choose Add after Current Stage or Add before Current Stage. NOTE HINT keeps the current Stage and inserts the saved Scene as a clearly titled section rather than wiping anything out. Open in New Stage still creates a separate Stage tab.

When Scenes are combined, board-specific settings and link relationships are preserved. NOTE HINT remaps imported link-group letters when needed so Group A in one Scene does not accidentally synchronize with an unrelated Group A already on the Stage. The active Stage keeps its current tempo/metronome transport settings because one Stage has one shared transport.

Learn, Theory Lab & Study Mode

Learn brings together Theory Lab, ear training, and progress tracking. Theory Lab lets you build a musical formula from intervals, compare it with NOTE HINT's official library, and save the result as one of your own Patterns. Use this to learn why a pattern is constructed the way it is instead of only memorizing shapes.

Study Mode can change a generated board from full answers to roots-only or hidden-answer practice. Learning status can be tracked as Not started, Learning, Comfortable, or Mastered. Ear training provides focused interval and basic chord-quality recognition using browser audio.

3.0 practice tools

Each generated board can now act as an active practice surface. Open ••• → Playback & practice transport to choose tempo, follow the Stage tempo, add a 1–2 bar count-in, loop, pause/stop, and select the playback sequence. Scale-like patterns support ascending, descending, up/down, thirds, fourths, and sliding 3- or 4-note sequences. Chords support block and arpeggiated playback, using the selected practical fretboard voicing or Piano inversion when one is active.

During playback, NOTE HINT highlights the marker, Piano key, Staff note, or TAB location that is sounding. A Progression Overview has its own Play control, and Song Builder can play events in measure order according to their beat lengths.

Intervals & exercise mode can focus one interval and turn the board into a validated Find root / Find interval exercise. Answers can come from a click/tap, Web MIDI input, or microphone pitch checking. MIDI support depends on the browser; microphone checking requires HTTPS and permission.

Fretboard study systems include CAGED, 3-notes-per-string, pentatonic box study, triads by string set, root/octave shapes, chord-tone targeting, and horizontal single-string study. Suggested fingering can be shown where useful. Practical chord shapes use shape-aware finger suggestions; scale fingering is presented as a position suggestion rather than a single mandatory fingering.

For harmony study, chord boards can compare Voice leading with another chord board to show common tones and nearest pitch movement. Present opens teacher presentation mode with one board at a time, Previous/Next, reveal/hide answers, and playback.

Song Builder

Song Builder organizes music by measure. Set the song key, tempo, time signature, and notation clef, then add chord, note, rest, or blank/live-idea events with beat durations and optional lyric/teaching cues. Chord events can show their Roman-numeral function against the song key.

The Play Along highway moves events right-to-left through a fixed playhead while Fretboard, Piano, Staff, and TAB study views follow the current event. The separate Arrangement timeline remains the structural overview. Measures can be dragged to reorder them or moved with the arrow controls, and Duplicate measure copies a complete measure for repeated sections. Undo/Redo keeps up to 50 musical edits; use Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z (or Ctrl/Cmd+Y) to redo.

Current Measure Fretboard, Piano, Staff, and TAB panels can be opened independently per measure. Blank ideas can be edited directly by clicking those representations, and Song Builder can use count-in, looping, click, or available drum grooves for practice. Songs are saved to My Songs and can also be supplied as lesson resources or assignment starting material.

Classes & education roles

Teacher and Student are class-specific roles, not permanent account types. The account itself remains User or Admin. A person can therefore teach one class and be a student in another.

The person who creates a class becomes its Teacher. Students can join using the class code or be added by an authorized Teacher using the email address of an existing NOTE HINT account. The Account page shows separate Teaching and My classes lists so each relationship is clear.

Admins can inspect every class from Admin → Education, see each user's education roles and connected classes, open any class, archive/reactivate classes, change non-owner members between Teacher and Student, or remove/reactivate a membership. The class owner always remains an active Teacher.

Lessons & assignments

A Teacher can assemble a Lesson from teacher notes plus existing Patterns, saved Boards, Scenes, and Songs. Resources are snapshotted when they are added so later edits to the teacher's original material do not silently rewrite what students were given.

Assignments can include instructions, a due date, an optional Lesson, and starter Pattern, Scene, or Song material. Students work in their own copy and can submit a Scene, a Song, and/or a written response. Teachers can review the submitted work, provide feedback, and return it without overwriting the student's source material.

Tuner, metronome & drums

The tuner and metronome now open as movable floating panels on desktop so they do not consume the selected-board side panel. The tuner uses microphone input through the browser and requires HTTPS plus microphone permission. Closing the tuner panel stops microphone listening.

The metronome can keep running after its panel is closed. On mobile its header icon pulses with the beat and highlights the downbeat. The metronome can use a normal click or a simple drum groove. In Drum mode the click is off by default. Raise the Click mix slider only when you intentionally want the metronome click layered over the drums. Drum and click levels are stored with the Scene.

Sharing & revisions

Your patterns and Scenes remain yours. When someone follows a shared item, NOTE HINT pins the revision they received. If the owner changes it, followers can choose to update. If the source is removed, followers can make their pinned revision local instead of losing it unexpectedly.

Scene save status

The status beside the Scene name distinguishes the automatic working draft from the Scene library. Working draft · kept automatically means your current tab is protected in this browser but has not been intentionally saved to My Scenes. Unsaved changes · draft kept means an owned Scene has newer working changes that are still preserved in the tab. Saved means the named Scene in My Scenes matches the current tab.

Stage defaults

Admin → Settings controls site-wide defaults for new stages and boards, including instrument, standard tuning, starting pattern, total frets, visible fret range, orientation, marker labels, board width, generated chord/pattern width, and Practical/Theory chord-position mode. Each signed-in user can override those defaults under Account → My Stage defaults. Leaving an account field on “Use site default” keeps it tied to the Admin choice.

Pattern-library additions and generated chord boards default to a half-row layout unless you change that preference.

Accounts & devices

Administrators can give a test account Full Access from Admin → Users without configuring Square. The grant can be revoked later and the account falls back to its normal plan/entitlements. Administrators can also edit the logged-out homepage and main page-heading copy from Admin → Page Content without changing PHP files.

Your account is server-based, so the same login works across desktop, iPad, iPhone, and other browsers. You can sign in with the email used for the account or the account display name. NOTE HINT 1.0.2 also keeps the session cookie valid when Safari reaches the www and non-www forms of the same installed domain.