Show HN: I made a tool for learning scales, chords, and how to combine them

aleshh 19 points 16 comments May 20, 2026
projects.alesh.com · View on Hacker News

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

Discussion Highlights (6 comments)

MattRix

It’s a cool idea, but is there no way to hear the actual notes?

rdataguy

And you should add that it also teaches modes, which are counterintuitive and with dumb hard-to-remember names. Cool app, good job!

altmanaltman

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

mike741

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

sijourneyweezer

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.

goestin

Very nice, thank you. Bookmarked.

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