Show HN: I made a tool for learning scales, chords, and how to combine them
35 points by aleshh 2 days ago | 21 comments
This started out when I vibe-coded a guitar scale fingering generator. It came out pretty good, and I started adding stuff to it: chords, then how chords and scales interact.

Then I added charts for other instruments I mess around with: piano, cello, alto recorder.

There's a complexity toggle to go from basic harmony to extended/experimental stuff.

It's honestly still mostly a toy, but I thought other people might be interested in playing with it. Source is on github, so it's easy enough to run locally and fork.

https://github.com/aleshh/gtr-scales

  • MattRix 2 days ago |
    It’s a cool idea, but is there no way to hear the actual notes?
    • aleshh 2 days ago |
      I've thought about adding something that would vamp certain chords, say. But sounds like you mean something different... like, play the pitches in a scale?

      I very much would like some way to preview what the sound and feel of certain combinations of chords and scales/tones is, but I haven't quite figured out how it might work.

      • MattRix 2 days ago |
        For now I just mean something simple like playing whichever note you press on the piano/fretboard.
      • lbreakjai 2 days ago |
        Perhaps something like alphatab could work?

        https://www.alphatab.net/

    • aleshh 2 days ago |
      Ok, I took a stab at this!

      - All the notes on fingering charts can be clicked and they play a sound

      - Chords get a little playback button

      - Compose mode gets its own playback controls

      The sound is very basic, I'll see if I can fix that next.

  • rdataguy 2 days ago |
    And you should add that it also teaches modes, which are counterintuitive and with dumb hard-to-remember names. Cool app, good job!
    • aleshh 2 days ago |
      Yeah! I came across a book that was literally just fingering charts for all these scales in all the keys and I was like, wait a second, this is dumb...
    • noman-land 2 days ago |
      Modes are easy once you realize they're all just major scales with a different starting note.

      C Major starting and ending on D is D Dorian.

      C Major starting and ending on E is E Phrygian.

      Etc.

      • euroderf a day ago |
        Unfortunately, it's the kind of arbitrary jargon that put off n00bs.
        • noman-land a day ago |
          If you're studying modes you will have to have already learned most of these words. Modes are a more advanced concept but become easier when you compare them to something you already know (major scales).
  • altmanaltman 2 days ago |
    This is maybe good as a reference but its much better to just understand the basic shapes and you can play any scale from memory based on where you start the pattern on the fretboard. This seems a bit too intimidating compared to the tab pdf i used over a decade ago
    • aleshh 2 days ago |
      Agree, this is very much about where I am and not for beginners. But I think it helps learn the one “big pattern” when you see where the different scale degrees fit into it in each mode?
      • altmanaltman a day ago |
        No I mean even as someone who knows music theory and scales, this just seems to be too much info compared to a quick reference (basically UI seems to be a too cluttered shouldve been the feedback that i gave). I have been playing for over a decade now and mostly remember scales by muscle memory and ear.

        I don't play anything other than guitar so maybe this helps in terms of if you want to learn overall music theory i guess.

      • alok-g a day ago |
        Looks nice and powerful, but absolutely not for beginners (in that sense, the Show HN title looks overpromising).
  • mike741 2 days ago |
    i love this idea but i wish there was a simple way to play the sounds of whatever is currently selected. perhaps a play button near the top of the page or a spacebar hotkey
    • aleshh 2 days ago |
      I added that after posting this. You can click any note on the scale, and there are play buttons on the chords. The sound will vaguely approximate the current instrument. On the Compose screen you can select the sound. I'm working on improving the sounds, this is just a first pass.
  • sijourneyweezer 2 days ago |
    I have to ask. Do you seriously not mind your site looking like every other vibe coded site on the internet? Every project posted on hacker news these days has the same font and same rounded corners on everything.
    • Topology1 2 days ago |
      What makes it look like AI to you? Not trying to be rude, just personally don't see it.
    • aleshh 19 hours ago |
      The short answer is yes, I do mind.

      I've taken some steps to mitigate this. I made a design brief (https://gist.github.com/aleshh/7435682311b6cb944bf18ecc3751f...) for LLMs to follow to kind of steer them in a particular direction. And I do spend time tweaking design with them.

      But I agree it's not enough. The problem is, there are as I see it really two options here

      (1) Guide the LLM and just spend more time on the visual stuff. The trouble is those refactors take as much time as adding major new features, sometimes more, because the LLM doesn't get it right and you gotta go around and around. So it takes a big time investment to go from something that's pretty good to something that's merely somewhat better.

      (2) The other option is to do it all by hand. I sometimes do some of this, but the further along you get the harder it is, because the LLMS write lots of CSS, and (at least the last time I tried) refactoring their stuff is time-consuming and kind of a prerequisite to tweaking things.

      Probably what I should do is expand on the design spec, and add it to AGENTS.md (instead of just throwing it in on the initial prompt) and generally try to get good on this aspect.

      I should note that on my "real" project (https://flipper.fm), I spend a lot more time steering the design, creating a component library, Storybook, creating CSS classes for the LLM to use, etc etc. Again, this thing is a toy.

      Sorry for the long answer, but you're really hitting on something real here.

  • goestin a day ago |
    Very nice, thank you. Bookmarked.
  • Joscharb a day ago |
    I like this, have you thought of adding more instruments like banjo?