Recent Updates

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What's new in GuitarTheory — notable additions and improvements, most recent first.

Song Lab — Custom Lick Library & Beat Duplication

v0.16.3April 21, 2026

›You can now save any section of your tab as a named custom lick. Hit the new Select button in the Tab Sheet controls, check the beats you want (or click "all" to grab everything), and click Save as Lick. Give it a name, optionally tag it with a key and style, and choose whether to share it with the community.
›Saved licks appear in a new My Licks tab inside the Key Detail view, alongside the existing Scale Suggestions and Lick Ideas tabs. Licks tagged for the current key are surfaced at the top. Hit Insert to drop the lick's beats into your tab at the cursor position.
›Community Licks are also browsable from the My Licks tab — a sub-tab shows public licks from all users, filtered by the active key when relevant.
›The same selection mode now powers beat duplication. Select any beats, then click Duplicate — the selected beats are copied and inserted immediately after the last selected beat. The selection highlight moves to the new copies so you can see exactly what landed. Use this to quickly build repeating riff or fill patterns.

Song Lab — Outside Notes, Chord Insertion & Vibrato

v0.16.2April 21, 2026

›The Tab Key Analysis panel now explains why your lick notes might not match the progression key. When a key is selected from the chord analysis, any note outside that key is highlighted in amber. Each outside note shows its interval name (b3, b7, maj6, etc.) and a plain-English description of the musical role it plays — blue note, Mixolydian feel, Dorian brightness, Phrygian color, and so on. This makes it easy to see when an intentional outside tone is creating tension versus when the lick genuinely clashes.
›You can now insert chord voicings directly into the tab notation. An "Insert Chord" button appears in the Tab Sheet controls when your progression has chords. Clicking it opens a panel listing each chord — click one to insert its standard-tuning fretted voicing as a tab beat at your cursor position.
›Vibrato notation is now supported. When editing a note cell, a "vib" toggle button appears alongside the existing bend control. Toggling it marks the note with a purple ~ indicator in the grid and renders a VexFlow vibrato wavy-line symbol above the corresponding note in the treble staff. Lick Ideas that describe vibrato technique (Upper Octave Wail, High-Position Solo, B.B. King Upper Register, High-Register Wail) now automatically add vibrato marks to the appropriate notes when you click Insert.

Song Lab — Lick Ideas Insert at the Right Register

v0.16.1April 18, 2026

›When you click Insert on a Lick Idea, the tab notes now land at the correct register for that lick. High-register lick ideas (upper octave solos, 12th-position phrases, tapping, shred runs) insert notes starting at the 12th fret area on the high strings. Low-register lick ideas (riffs, palm-muted patterns, open-position lines) continue to insert in the first-position area as before.
›High-register licks are now labelled with a "12th pos" badge in the Lick Ideas panel so you can see at a glance where on the neck they will land before you insert.
›This applies across all 14 supported styles. Rock, blues, jazz, metal, country, classical, flamenco, funk, folk, and pop all have their high-register lick descriptions (B.B. King upper register, SRV double-stop bends, neoclassical runs, tapping leads, pentatonic wail phrases, etc.) correctly placed in the upper octave.

Song Lab — Key Analysis, Tab Entry & Song Persistence

v0.16.0April 18, 2026

›Song Lab is a new top-level workspace at /song-lab where you can bring a chord progression, identify the key it belongs to, explore scale and lick ideas for that key, and write guitar tablature — all in one place. Songs save to your account and can be reloaded any time.
›Add 3 or more chords and the key analysis engine scores your progression against all 24 major and minor keys. Each result shows how many of your chords fit diatonically, the key signature, and the full diatonic chord structure with your matching chords highlighted.
›Clicking a key opens a detail view with two panels. Scale Suggestions lists up to 5 scales for your style (rock, blues, jazz, metal variants, country, funk, and more) ranked by fit. Lick Ideas gives style-specific technique descriptions — picking approaches, position guidance, bending ideas, and more.
›The Tab Sheet Editor is a grid where you enter fret numbers string by string. As you build it, VexFlow renders live standard notation and TAB below. The notation follows guitar's transposing convention (written 8va). Supports 10 time signatures, per-beat duration control, and measure barlines.
›Bends are now supported in tab notation. Click the ↑ indicator on any fretted note to cycle through no bend, full step, and half step. VexFlow renders the bend arc with "Full" or "1/2" text in the TAB stave.
›Hit Play to hear your tab played back through your current guitar voice (acoustic steel, electric jazz, overdriven, or distortion). Playback respects your tempo and note durations, then auto-stops when the last note ends.
›Insert Scale adds notes from a scale suggestion (or one of your favourite scales) directly into the tab at the current cursor position. Lick Ideas in the key detail view have an Insert button that does the same from the analysis panel.
›Songs can optionally be linked to a Saved Progression. When linked, edits to the chord list in Song Lab sync back to your Saved Progressions automatically, and changes made in Saved Progressions are reflected when you reload the song.

Guitar Sound — Persists Correctly on Page Load

v0.15.2April 18, 2026

›Fixed a race condition where the guitar sound preference was briefly reset to Acoustic Steel on page load before your saved preference was applied. Now the selected guitar type is saved to localStorage, so the correct sound is active from the very first note — even before your profile loads.
›Fixed a second issue where the guitar type was being set before NextAuth finished determining your login state. The app now waits for authentication to resolve before applying preferences, preventing a temporary flicker to default settings.

Audio Accuracy — Chords & Scales Now Play at the Right Pitch

v0.15.1April 17, 2026

›Every chord diagram in the app now plays at the exact pitch shown on the fretboard. An open E major chord played at the nut sounds different from an E major barre at the 7th fret — both now play at their correct register instead of a generic octave approximation.
›This applies everywhere: the Chord Visualizer, the Chord Progression Builder (including saved voicings), and all scale pattern playback in the Scale Visualizer.
›Scale patterns in the TAB view also had a string-mapping bug that caused the wrong open string notes to be used for middle strings (B and G) — this is now corrected, so scale runs sound accurate from string to string.
›Alternate tunings benefit too — Drop D, Open G, DADGAD, and all other non-standard tunings now play chord voicings at their correct pitches.

Chord Identifier — Find Chords from Notes

v0.15.0April 16, 2026

›The Chord Visualizer now includes an "Identify Chord from Notes" tool. Click the panel at the top of the page, select any notes you're playing (or hearing), and the tool instantly tells you what chords those notes form.
›Exact matches are shown in green — the notes you selected make up that chord exactly. Chords that contain your notes plus a few more are shown in blue, with the missing notes marked so you can see what it would take to complete them.
›Click any result to load it into the Chord Visualizer — voicing diagrams, staff notation, interval degrees, and compatible scales all update immediately.
›All results stay clickable after you select one, so you can compare multiple chords side-by-side without re-entering your notes.

Audio Engine — Per-Type Effect Tuning

v0.14.0April 11, 2026

›The audio engine has been extracted into its own library (vaiism-guitar-audio) that powers all guitar sound playback. Nothing changes from a user perspective — all four guitar types still work exactly as before.
›Each guitar type now has its own reverb and chorus settings tuned to its character. Acoustic Steel gets a roomy 1.5-second reverb; Electric Jazz a warmer medium tail; Overdriven Guitar a shorter reverb so the grit stays tight; Distortion Guitar is dry with no chorus (chorus on distortion creates muddiness). Previously all four types shared the same effect settings.
›Switching guitar types now rebuilds the entire effect chain rather than just swapping the sampler, so there is no bleed-through of one type's reverb tail into another type's sound.

Guitar Sound Selection

v0.13.0April 2, 2026

›You can now choose which guitar sound is used for all audio playback across the app. Four options are available: Acoustic Steel, Electric Jazz, Distortion, and Overdriven.
›The setting lives in your profile under "Guitar Sound". It saves to your account and applies on every visit — no page reload needed when switching.
›If you're not signed in, the app defaults to Acoustic Steel.
›This is the foundation for expanding the sound library over time — more guitar types can be added without any changes to the rest of the app.

Chord Visualizer — Export to PNG & PDF

v0.12.5March 31, 2026

›The Chord Visualizer now has an Export button next to the Play button. Hit it to download a complete chord reference sheet as a PNG or PDF.
›Each export includes the chord name and type, a Notes section showing all chord tones as color-coded pills (root in purple, others in blue), a Degrees & Formula section with interval boxes and the chord formula, and a Staff Notation section with the notes written on a treble clef staff.
›All chord voicings are shown as fretboard diagrams — the same diagrams you see on the page, including open strings, muted strings, barre chords, and finger numbers.
›A "Works With" section at the bottom lists compatible scales for the chord.
›Several chord diagram data fixes were made: an impossible m7♭5 "Barre-A Shape" fingering (the same finger assigned to three different positions simultaneously) was corrected, and two other voicings with notes outside their displayed fret window were fixed.

Scale Visualizer — Export to PNG & PDF

v0.12.4March 30, 2026

›The Scale Visualizer now has an Export button (↓ icon) next to the scale name. Hit it to download a clean reference sheet as a PNG image or PDF.
›Each export includes: the scale title and mood description, notes in scale, scale degrees with interval labels, the step pattern (W/H), a full fretboard diagram, and standard notation + TAB when you have a fingering pattern selected.
›The fretboard diagram shows every scale note across the neck — root notes in purple, scale tones in blue, open strings as unfilled circles. If you have the 24-fret view active, the diagram splits into two rows (frets 0–12 and 13–24) so notes stay large and easy to read.
›The diagram reflects your current tuning — string labels show the actual open string notes, inlay dots mark standard fret positions (3, 5, 7, 9, 12), and fret numbers below each row keep you oriented on the neck.
›Non-standard tunings are called out in the export header so reference sheets are self-explanatory.

Alternate Tuning Chord Voicings

v0.12.3March 30, 2026

›The Chord Visualizer now has a Tuning selector alongside the root note and chord type controls. Choose from 14 tunings across five groups: standard (6 and 7-string), drop tunings (Drop D, Double Drop D, Drop C), transposed (half-step and full-step down), modal/Celtic (DADGAD, FACGCE), and open tunings (Open G, Open D, Open E, Open A).
›For standard 6-string tuning, the existing hand-crafted voicing library is used exactly as before — same named positions, same CAGED shapes.
›For any other tuning, chord voicings are computed automatically. The algorithm finds playable shapes by mapping each string's chord tones across fret windows, preferring open strings (which are especially resonant in alternate tunings) and root-in-bass voicings.
›String labels on each chord diagram update to show the actual open string notes for the selected tuning. Audio playback uses the correct pitches too — not standard tuning defaults.

41-Scale Library & Enharmonic Spelling

v0.12.2March 29, 2026

›The scale library has grown to 41 scales. New additions include Phrygian Dominant (Hijaz), Persian, Raga Todi, Raga Marwa, Raga Purvi, Lydian Dominant, Super Locrian (Altered), Dorian b2, Lydian Augmented, Locrian Natural 2, Bebop Major, Romanian Minor, Neapolitan Major, Enigmatic, Augmented, and Prometheus.
›All 7-note scales now use degree-based enharmonic spelling — each degree is assigned the correct letter name so note names never repeat within a scale. For example, G Phrygian Dominant now correctly shows G Ab B C D Eb F# instead of G G# B C D D# F.
›Scales that require double accidentals (## or bb) to maintain correct spelling are highlighted in amber, with a note explaining the unusual notation.

Alternate Tuning Support

v0.12.0March 28, 2026

›The Scale Visualizer now supports 14 tunings across five groups: standard (6, 7, 8 string), drop tunings (Drop D, Double Drop D, Drop C), transposed (half-step down, full-step down), modal/Celtic (DADGAD, FACGCE), and open tunings (Open G, Open D, Open E, Open A).
›Selecting a tuning updates the fretboard, fingering patterns, notation, and TAB all at once.
›For alternate tunings, scale patterns are automatically generated per neck position rather than relying on CAGED shapes designed for standard tuning.
›The Notation & TAB section now shows a context header — scale name, pattern, fret range, and tuning — so you always know what you're looking at without scrolling up.

GT Game — Music Theory Quiz

v0.11.0March 27, 2026

›A 20-level progressive music theory quiz, organized into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Master tiers.
›Questions cover scales, intervals, chords, modes, and key relationships — with timed answers and plain-English explanations for every question.
›Earn tier badges as you advance. Your progress and best scores are saved to your profile.
›A game badge can optionally appear on your avatar throughout the app.

Chord Progression Builder Enhancements

v0.10.3March 2026

›Edit and duplicate saved progressions directly from the library — changes save back without creating a new entry.
›Export any progression as a PNG image or PDF, complete with chord diagrams.
›Bulk-delete multiple progressions at once from the library.
›Upload a custom profile photo from the profile page.
›Each chord card in the builder now has a dropdown to change its chord type mid-progression (major, minor, 7ths, suspended, and more).
›Added 12 new progression templates across R&B, Country, Funk, Modal, and Neo-Soul genres — 28 templates total.

Chord Library, Voicings & Polish

v0.9.0 – v0.10.2March 2026

›Full chord diagram library with 14 chord types, multiple voicing positions, and interval/degree display modes.
›Mini chord diagrams in the progression builder show the exact voicing and position for each chord — saved and restored with the progression.
›Fret position cycling (← →) on each chord card so you can pick the voicing that fits your hand.
›Progression share links — make a progression public and share it with anyone, no account required.
›Colorblind mode added to Preferences — replaces color-only cues in the Circle of Fifths.

Scale Visualizer & Enharmonic Keys

v0.8.2 – v0.8.13February 2026

›Scale Visualizer launched — explore 20+ scales on an interactive fretboard with fingering patterns (CAGED, 3NPS, Box), staff notation, and guitar TAB.
›Scale playback with accurate guitar transposing convention (written 8va above concert pitch).
›Save favorite scales to your profile for quick one-click access.
›Enharmonic key support on the Circle of Fifths — toggle between B/Cb, F#/Gb, and Db/C# spellings; all panels (scale notes, chord names, fretboard) update together.
›8-string guitar support added to the fretboard and Scale Visualizer.

REST API, Chord Progressions & More

v0.6.0 – v0.8.1January – February 2026

›Public music theory REST API launched at /api/v1 — scales, chords, keys, intervals, and fretboard data. No account needed.
›Chord Progression Builder added to the Circle of Fifths — build progressions from diatonic chords, set BPM, and play them back.
›Progression template library with curated chord progressions across Pop, Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, and more.
›Drag-to-reorder chords; save progressions to your account.
›User accounts, profiles, and preferences (default key, guitar type, theme).

GuitarTheory is actively developed — more to come.