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Complete guide to using the site
This guide explains step by step how to use every part of the site, from the fretboard to the tuner. You can read it from the start or jump to the topic you need. After the guide you will find an 8-week study plan that uses these tools.
What you can do on the site
- See every maqam and scale on the fretboard of a guitar, bouzouki, bağlama or bass, on any root, with quarter tones marked.
- Play the notes in a recorded instrument sound, position by position, at a metronome tempo.
- Practice with a drone, a count-in, repeats and a tempo increase, and with a pitch check through the microphone.
- See chords for every degree of the scale, and look up chords for each instrument.
- Tune your instrument with a needle tuner, in semitones and quarter tones.
- Install the site as an app on your phone, and work without internet on pages you have already visited.
The main screen and navigation
At the top are the site name (click it to return to the main page), the "Articles & FAQ" banner and the language selector (Hebrew, English and Arabic). Changing the language takes you to the version of the same page in another language.
Below are five tabs: "Scales & Maqamat" (the study page), and "Chords" for guitar, bouzouki, bağlama and bass.
At the bottom of the screen is a fixed bar that stays on every page: play or stop, arpeggio (on the chord pages), drone, metronome, tuner, tempo control (BPM) and mute. This lets you start tools without scrolling.
On a phone, when the browser allows it, an "📲 Install as an app" button appears next to the print button.
Studying a maqam or a scale (the "Scales & Maqamat" tab)
- Instrument: choose guitar, bouzouki (tetrachordo or trichordo), bağlama or bass (4, 5 or 6 strings).
- Category: "Eastern" (12 maqamat) or "Western" (22 scales and modes).
- Maqam or scale: choose from the list.
- Root: 24 roots, including quarter-tone roots (for example E↓). D is a comfortable place to start.
- View: "All notes" shows the whole neck. "Positions" shows one area at a time (the bağlama has no positions view, and you see the whole neck).
- Position size: 2 to 5 frets. Start with 3.
Reading the fretboard: a red circle is the root, yellow is a quarter-tone note, and blue is any other note. The symbol ↓ next to a note name (for example E↓) means it is lowered by a quarter tone (half-flat). The numbers under the neck are the fret numbers. In positions view, a gold frame surrounds the active position and the rest is dimmed. You choose the position by clicking the numbers in the playback row.
Scale structure (folded): clicking it opens the notes, the degrees (yellow circles for quarter tones), and the intervals in tones and quarter tones. Above it a fixed line shows where the quarter tones are.
Chords of the scale: five main chords in one row, with shapes, and below them "All chords of the scale (including 7th chords)", folded. In the chords a quarter tone is rounded up to the nearest semitone, so they can be played as a regular chord.
Playback and practice (the "Hear the scale" row)
- ▶ Play: in "All notes" it plays the whole neck note by note along a path that shortens hand movement. In "Positions" it plays the selected position.
- ▶ All positions (in positions view): goes through all positions in a row, and the frame moves with it.
- Playback order: "By scale order (from the root)", "String by string" or "Up and down (from the root)".
- Speed: "Follow the metronome" (default, matches the BPM), or slow, medium and fast.
- BPM: the tempo, shared with the metronome.
- Notes per beat: how many notes in each beat (1 to 4).
- Mute metronome: removes the click and keeps the tempo. Instrument sound: turns the sound on or off.
On a phone the sound starts only after you press a button. If there is no sound, check that the phone is not on silent and that the volume is up.
Advanced practice (a folded section in the playback row)
- Count-in: 2 or 4 beats before playback starts, to get ready. Count-in clicks are heard even when the metronome is muted.
- Repeats: once, twice, 4 times or without limit, until you press stop.
- Tempo increase: adds 2, 5 or 10 BPM on each repeat, to build speed gradually.
- Drone: a background tone on the root of the maqam. You can choose the root alone, root and fifth, or root and fourth. You can also start it from the bottom bar. When you change the root, the drone follows. Drone volume sets the level.
- Microphone practice: tick the box and start playback. The site plays silently and highlights note after note. Play or sing the flashing note. After each note a ring appears: green if the pitch is right (within 25 cents), red if not, gray if no sound was heard, with the number of cents. At the end a summary appears (for example "11 out of 15 notes correct"). The check does not tell octaves apart, so you can also sing. A slow tempo (up to about 80 BPM) and a quiet room are recommended.
The metronome
Open it from the "Metronome" button at the top of the page or from the bottom bar.
- BPM: the + and − buttons or typing (30 to 240).
- Beats per bar: 1 to 8, with accent on the first beat.
- Tap tempo: tap a few times at the speed you want and the metronome learns it.
- Pitch and volume: adjust the click. Test sound plays it.
- Mute metronome: keeps the tempo, with no click.
The tuner
- Open the tuner (or use the "Tuner" button) and press 🎤 Start listening. The browser asks for microphone access, and you need to allow it.
- In the settings choose the instrument (or "Chromatic" for any note). For the bağlama choose a tuning (düzen) from 21, and you can shift the tuning by semitones.
- Choose the mode: semitones or quarter tones. You can change the calibration (415 to 466 Hz, default 440) and the input source if you have several microphones.
- Play one string. The site shows the note, the nearest string and the frequency.
Reading the needle: the needle shows the deviation in cents (range ±50). When the sound is close, the gauge zooms automatically to a fine range of ±20 (marked 🔍). Three lamps show low (♭), in tune (●, green) and high (♯). When the deviation is within 5 cents it says "In tune ✓". When the pitch is accurate (within 3 cents) for about seven checks in a row, a short beep plays once. You can turn it off in the settings.
If the tuner does not detect: play louder and closer to the microphone, make sure the microphone is not covered, and reduce background noise. If a message about permission or another app using the microphone appears, follow it. In the settings there is a Diagnostics button that checks what is not working and produces a report.
On a phone the microphone works only when the site is opened in Chrome or Safari, and not inside an app such as WhatsApp or Facebook.
Chords (the four tabs)
- Choose the instrument tab: guitar, bouzouki, bağlama or bass.
- Choose a root (12 buttons) and a chord type: Major, Minor, 7, 5, dim, dim7, aug, sus2, sus4, maj7, m7 or 7sus4.
- Choose a position (1 to 5) to see different shapes on the neck.
- Press ▶ Play chord for the full sound, or ▶ Arpeggio to hear the notes one by one. You can also tick Show all chord notes on the fretboard.
On the bouzouki choose tetrachordo or trichordo. On the bağlama choose a tuning from 21, or "Custom" and set a note for each pair of strings, and shift the tuning by semitones. On the bass choose 4, 5 or 6 strings.
Printing
The "🖨️ Print" button prints the fretboard and the cards without the bottom bar, the panels and the ads. In print, dark backgrounds turn white to save ink.
On a phone: installing, working offline and permissions
- Android (Chrome): the "📲 Install as an app" button, or the ⋮ menu and then "Install app".
- iPhone (Safari): the Share button and then "Add to Home Screen". Notifications and installing need iOS 16.4 or later.
- After installing the site opens full screen and also works without internet on pages you have already visited. When the site changes, an "The site was updated" message appears with a refresh button.
- The fretboard is long: on a phone you can scroll it sideways, or turn the phone to landscape.
Troubleshooting
- No sound: press a button (the sound starts only after a press), check that "Instrument sound" is not turned off, and that the phone is not on silent.
- The tuner does not work on a phone: open the site from an https address in Chrome or Safari, not from WhatsApp or as a file. Then run Diagnostics in the tuner settings.
- A quarter tone sounds "wrong": in practice the pitch of quarter tones in maqamat varies between players and regions. The site uses 50 cents as a convenient approximation. Try them against the drone.
- The site looks old after an update: hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R) or close and reopen the app.
- Did not find what you were looking for: read the articles and FAQ.