Exercises
Bite-sized drills.
Each one targets a single skill and grades you on the spot.
All exercises
41 total
#1 · Fretboard
Six Voices Awake
Wake up your guitar's six strings, low to high. The sweep every guitarist plays when they pick the instrument up.
#2 · Fretboard
Name That String
Hear a string, find it on your guitar. First ear-training rep. Two misses and the fretboard reveals the answer.
#3 · Riffs
The Two-Note Stalk (Jaws)
Open E and fret 1, alternating. Press the wire just behind the first metal bar. You just played Jaws.
#4 · Fretboard
Climbing the Low E
Four notes on one string — the alphabet of every rock riff. E, F, G, A. Ascend, then descend.
#5 · Riffs
Smoke on the Water
The most famous riff in rock, on one string. Seven notes, two phrases, three passes. 1972. Deep Purple.
#6 · Shapes
Hello, Em
Six strings ringing together — your first chord. Press hard. Strum slow. Then prove it: pick each string by itself and hear all six ring. Three rounds.
#7 · Shapes
The Em Arpeggio Check
Make Em. Don't strum — pluck each string one at a time, low to high. If a string won't ring, this check won't move past it: adjust until it sounds.
#8 · Shapes
Hello, Am
Your second chord. Three fingers, same fret. Em and Am share two fingers — you already know most of this chord.
#9 · Shapes
The Easier Twins (Em7 & Am7)
Lift one finger. Get an easier version of each chord. They sound 95% the same. Use them when your hand is sore.
#10 · Transitions
The Slow Switch
Em to Am, one switch at a time. No clock. Take as long as you need. Ten clean transitions and you've done more chord changes than most people manage in their first month.
#11 · Transitions
The Em-Am Vamp
Two chords, one minute, no stopping. Em, four strums. Am, four strums. Loop. Keep the music moving even when a change is late.
#12 · Melody
Twinkle Twinkle
The first melody anyone learns. 14 notes, two strings, one tune your grandmother will recognise.
#13 · Shapes
The Two-Finger Shape
The movable power-chord shape: two fingers, two strings, root + fifth. Index on low E fret 3, ring on A fret 5. That's G5 — and it slides anywhere.
#14 · Shapes
E5, the Anchor
Your first power chord. Open low E, one finger on the A string fret 2. The open string plays the bottom note for you. Sounds huge.
#15 · Shapes
A5, Same Shape, New String
Same idea, one string over. Open A, one finger on the D string fret 2. One shape, two homes.
#16 · Transitions
The Slide Switch
E5 to A5 and back, no clock. Ten clean switches. Notice your hand barely moves — it's the same shape.
#17 · Shapes
Movable Power
Fret the whole shape — no open strings now. Fret 3 is G5; slide up to fret 5 and it's A5, the one you already know. The fret picks the chord.
#18 · Shapes
All Over the Neck
Four power chords, all over the neck — E5 open, then G5, A5, C5 up the low-E string. Find each one fast. The shape is your map.
#19 · Strumming
The Down-Down-Down Strum
Hold E5. Down on every click — all downstrokes, even and hard. The entire rhythm part of a hundred punk songs.
#20 · Transitions
Two-Chord Vamp
E5 for a bar, A5 for a bar, loop — one minute, no stopping. Steady switches under pressure, like holding down the rhythm in a band.
#21 · Riffs
Seven Nation Army
The riff. One string, six notes, up around the 7th fret — the most recognizable bass line of the 2000s.
#22 · Transitions
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Four power chords, one real song. F5, B♭5, A♭5, D♭5 — the Nirvana chorus. The shape never changed; you're just moving it.
#23 · Melody
Kanmani Anbodu
The lead line from Guna — a single-note melody up on the g, b and high-e strings. Read the tab and play each note as it reaches the line.
#24 · Scales
The Box, Going Up
The A minor pentatonic box — the one shape every rock and blues solo is built from. Climb it low string to high. It already sounds like lead guitar.
#25 · Scales
Up and Back
Now come back down. Up the box, then down it — one fluid gesture. Descending takes different muscle memory than climbing, and lead playing needs both.
#26 · Fretboard
Name That Box Note
The app names a note from the box — you find it and play it. Licks leap around the box, so you need every note on demand, not just in order.
#27 · Riffs
The Falling Lick
Your first real phrase: a lick that falls down the box and lands on the root. Not a scale — music.
#28 · Riffs
Question and Answer
A lick with a shape: a rising question, a falling answer. Phrasing is what makes a lead line sing.
#29 · Riffs
The Rip
Rip all the way up the box and land on the high root. The long ascending run every soloist reaches for.
#30 · Scales
Noodle in the Box
No tab now — just improvise. Play any notes you like in the box; the app checks each one is in the A minor pentatonic scale. Make something up. There are no wrong notes here, only off-scale ones.
#31 · Riffs
Eight-Bar Solo
Put it together: the box, the licks, the phrasing — one complete solo. Rise to the peak, come back down, and land on the low root. Your first real lead break.
#32 · Fretboard
Open String Call-Out
The app names a string — find it and pick it open. Six strings, six calls, no fretting hand needed.
#33 · Dexterity
One Finger Per Fret
Index on fret 1, middle on 2, ring on 3, pinky on 4 — pick each note as the finger lands. The hand position guitarists drill forever.
#34 · Strumming
All Down Quarters
Hold Em. One down-strum on every click — even, full, relaxed. The simplest strumming there is, and the foundation of all of it.
#35 · Shapes
Hello, E
Em plus one finger. Your pointer joins at fret 1 and minor turns into major — the easiest major chord on the guitar.
#36 · Shapes
Hello, A
Three fingers in a row at fret 2. A little crowded, hugely useful — A powers more songs than almost any chord.
#37 · Shapes
Hello, D
A little triangle of fingers on the thinnest three strings. Only four strings get played — aiming is half the exercise, and the string-by-string picks will tell you instantly if a thick string snuck in or the thin one died.
#38 · Shapes
The D Ringing Check
Hold D and pluck its four strings one at a time. If a string won't ring, this check won't move past it: adjust until it sounds.
#39 · Transitions
The Fret-2 Pivot
A to D and back, no clock. Both chords live at fret 2 — your fingers rearrange without your hand going anywhere.
#40 · Transitions
The Rock Cycle
A, E, D, repeat — one minute. The classic three-chord rock progression; half the songs you know run on these three.
#41 · Transitions
Three Little Birds
The Bob Marley classic — A, D, and E, around and around. Three chords you know, one real song. Don't worry about a thing.