Fret Pro Guitar Notes Trainer 4+

Great concept, but…

The app makes too many mistakes. I have tried multiple guitars, two ipads and adjusted the background filter settings and different input location settings for the microphone, but nonetheless about every 5th to 10th input it will either: a. flash red like I misplayed the note immediately before I even get a chance to play the note; b. not recognize that I am playing the correct note, even though my guitar is in tune and the app itself shows I am playing the correct note when I go into the settings; c. get stuck where it won’t move off a note and won’t turn green or red, but just flash gray like I am not playing at a high enough volume. I can clear this by telling it to show the fretboard and playing the note there and then going through the steps to hide the fretboard but that is very tedious. Also, on one of my ipads, if I exit back to the main screen and then come back later to play, it can’t pick up any guitar sounds unless I swipe the app closed and reopen it. I would switch to five stars if these problems could be fixed.

UPDATING: At the developer’s suggestion I upped the bass knob on my amp and turned down the treble and mid range and that mostly fixed things. I think the app will now help me upgrade my reasonable fret board knowledge to my goal of locating the notes without any conscious thought or effort.

Best Fretboard Memorization App

I pulled down all of the apps in this category and tried them all out and this was the best of them. I like how it’s a one time purchase for full features, at a reasonable price. I love how it works with audio interfaces as well as the mic to recognize your notes and the recognition is spot on and fast (at least through audio interface which is what I use). The developer is responsive to suggestions and is still actively enhancing this app.

What I’d like to see in future releases is support for custom tunings, support for all frets and/or a custom selection of frets and/or notes, as well as the ability to configure note recognition to accept any octave of the given note so that you could for instance be prompted to play E and it would accept any octave of E allowing you to jump around or play the same not in a higher octave on the same string. Also a more specific configuration would be cool where it could also prompt for a very specific note such as E3 (E in the third octave) where your be memorizing not only the notes but also their octave.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the review and for the feedback. I am planning to add second octave and additional practice modes and configurability soon 🙏🏻

Update: Still Perfect Fretboard Drills App!

The latest update is a nice improvement. As I’ve improved my note-finding, speed has become more important. This new version is faster, and since it respects the Accessibility voice settings, I get an even faster drills session.

Original review:
It does its one-thing really well: help you gradually develop muscle-memory across the fretboard. It’s easy to imagine a tennis coach spending 20 minutes with a player on drills shot after shot. But I can’t imagine a guitar coach spending even 10 minutes on play-this-note, play-that-note drills. This app is that coach, running drills and giving feedback. I’ve had lessons on-and-off for 10 years, but never did the work of really knowing the notes on the fretboard. I didn’t think it really mattered. But now, concepts I slightly understood before are falling into place, and I’m able to communicate with my teacher in the same language. Recommended.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your review! I’m so glad that the app has helped your playing, and I love the anecdote about being able to better communicate with your teacher 🙏🏻🙏🏻