FretQuiz Will Help You Learn the Neck
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
A few weeks ago I came across FretQuiz from Guitar Lifestyle, a tool that helps you to learn the notes on the guitar. It’s a very simple quiz program that tests you on the different notes on the neck. After using the program for a bit it really has helped me to learn the notes better, and more importantly, recall them faster.
I’m at a level with my playing that I know the notes of each string and a few places where those are around the neck. But I still have trouble picking out notes on the 2nd through 5th strings, especially the sharps and flats in a higher register. Doing the quiz has helped there, but I still need some more practice for instance recall.
My favorite feature in FretQuiz is the Show Answer feature that allows you to cheat 
The cool part about that feature is that it shows you the right note and then all of the other places on the neck that note exists. If you study those charts you can begin to see patterns emerge. If you memorize the patterns then it’s much easier to know what notes are where.
FretQuiz is a pretty basic app and there are some areas for improvement, but I think the overall concept is good. Sure you could figure all of this out yourself, but if you are like me, a quiz tool like this can help motivate you to actually do it.
I think that FretQuiz could improve in 2 ways that would make it a better package. 1) The graphics for the guitar could be better - they aren’t terrible, but they are a little clunky. 2) The interface needs to be laid out better. I couldn’t view the entire screen on my laptop when the graphic of the body of the guitar was shown. I think a side by side layout of the notes form and the guitar image would improve the interface. Those are really the only two things that bothered me.
If you are interested in giving FretQuiz a try, there is a trial version offered at the site. Try it out and see if you like it.