Creative Guitar Fundamentals — Noel Johnston
“This chord-melody builder is a game changer.”
“A real-world solution to actual improvements in knowledge and playing — that you can immediately implement to expand your creativity.”
In a chord-melody arrangement, the highest note — the one your ear follows as the tune — is the most important note in the chord. Everything underneath is support. This whole app is built around that one idea: you choose the melody note first, and it hands you a chord shape that puts that note on top, ready to play.
You don't write notes on a staff here. Instead, you pick the melody by its number in the chord — the 1 (the root), the 3, the 5, the 7, the 9, and so on. Tap the arrows and the top note steps through those numbers; the app shows you both the number and the real note name, so it makes sense whether or not you read music. Hearing and choosing these numbers is the real skill this app builds — once it clicks, you start to "see" any melody as numbers, over any chord, in any key.
Finding a shape that puts a specific melody note on the first string — and is still playable without moving your hand — is slow, fiddly work by hand. This app does the hunting. Pick the chord and the melody number, and it instantly shows you every shape in its library that sings that note on top, each one a real grip you can play in one position. You make the musical choices; it solves the fretboard puzzle — and you can hear each shape the moment you land on it.
1. Add a chord. Click the button on a blank page to start — or bring in a whole song from a file (iReal Pro or notation software). Your first chord lands as a C major.
2. Set the chord. Each chord has three little stacked pickers: its letter (the root), its quality (major, minor, dominant, and so on), and the melody note on top.
3. Choose the melody note. Tap the ▲▼ arrows to move the top note through the chord's numbers (1, 3, 5, 7…). The diagram, the note on the staff, the chord name — and the sound — all update together.
4. Try other shapes. The ◀▶ arrows walk through every shape that keeps that same melody note on top. Each one is playable in a single hand position — no shifting.
5. Shape the rhythm. The little note-length buttons make each chord longer or shorter, and the bar rebalances itself. The + adds a chord, 🗑 removes one — and you can place a melody note with no chord under it when you just want the line.
6. Edit right on the staff. Click a time signature to change it, or click a barline to add a repeat. Repeats both play back and print correctly.
7. Hear the whole thing. Press ▶ to play your sketch on a piano sound at your tempo; the page scrolls along so you can follow, and the play/stop controls stay in reach. (If a line of chords runs off the right edge, just scroll sideways — a soft fade shows there's more.)
8. Keep it or share it. 💾 saves your arrangement to your computer; 📂 opens one back up. 🔗 copies a short link you can text or email — open it and the whole sheet comes back, shapes and all.
9. Transpose & print. Shift the whole tune up or down a half-step at a time (your shapes come along), flip diagrams for left-handed players if you like, then print a clean page named after your tune.
The flask icon opens the Lab — practice, tools, and tunes:
• Practice generators — instant worksheets for ii-V-I progressions and single-string "scaletone" runs, in any key.
• Custom Voicings — build your own chord shapes by tapping a fretboard; hear them and see what they're called, and they'll appear right alongside the built-in shapes when you cycle. Save them to a file to keep or share.
• Sample arrangements — open a finished chord-melody arrangement of mine and take it apart: see how the melody rides on top and why each shape was chosen. A great way to absorb the thinking before you write your own.
• Jazz Standard Library — over 1,400 jazz standards, ready to open by title. They come in as the changes only — no melody — so the chords are laid out for you and then you do the fun part: cycle each chord's ◀▶ to put the melody you want on top. The fastest way to start arranging a tune you love.
This app grew out of the way I teach fretboard harmony — connecting chords, scales, and melody as one system instead of three separate skills. If it's clicking for you and you want the full method, my books walk through it end to end (Voicing Modes and Creative Guitar Fundamentals pair especially well with this one), and the Creative Guitar Fundamentals class is where I get to dig into this stuff with people directly. No pressure at all — but I genuinely love talking about this; it's the thing I'll corner you about at a party. 🎸
Tap outside this window or press × to close