FLOCTO

Guide

One screen. Three questions.

Which key, what to play, where on the neck. The column on the left answers them; the neck shows the result; the bar under the neck plays it. The numbers follow the order to learn it in: start at 1.

The Flocto app with numbered areas, in the order to learn them: key, what to play, where on the neck, the neck, degree chips, Play, Options, exercises and settings.
  1. 1

    Which key

    The root, the note everything is measured from. Start here. Black keys show both names (C# and Db) until you pick one; then the button shows the spelling that fits what you play: Db major, G# minor.

  2. 2

    What to play

    Scales and modes on one tab, chords on the other. First pick the family, Major, Dominant, Minor or Dim. (chords also have Altered), then the scale or chord: each button says what makes it different (Dorian: minor with a 6) or lists its degrees (Maj 7: 1 3 5 7). A triad or a seventh chord opens as a voicing, the way you play it (see Chords, below). Clear · root only leaves just the root, so you can build your own sound with the degree chips (5).

  3. 3

    Where on the neck

    Frets: the whole neck, or one of five 4–5 fret areas. Pick two neighbouring areas to play across them: One at a time (the default) plays each area in turn, Diagonal runs one line up the neck. Strings: keep only some strings, a pair or three, and follow the neck sideways; the arrows slide the set one string up or down.

  4. 4

    The neck

    Every note shows its degree over the root. Colour is the note's job: root coral, third teal, fifth blue with a ring, seventh yellow, tensions (9, 11, 13) outlined in violet. Click a fret to hear it; double-click it, or hold it on a phone, to make it the new root. Intervals or Notes, next to Options, switches the circles between degrees and note names.

  5. 5

    Degree chips

    Switch single degrees on and off. Each group offers its versions: b9 or 9, b3 or 3, b5 or 5, b13 or 13, b7 or 7. Turn off the 5 and the 9 and you see only what defines the chord. Shell 1·3·7 keeps only root, third and seventh across the whole neck.

  6. 6

    Play

    Play runs the lit notes from the root to the root, lighting each one as it sounds, with real guitar samples. On a voicing it strums the chord, one inversion after another up the neck. − / + change the tempo. On a computer the space bar plays and stops.

  7. 7

    Options

    Everything about how Play sounds: the tempo slider, the subdivision (eighths, triplets, 16ths), the pattern (straight, 3rds, in 3s or 4s, and on a scale Triads or 7th chords: the arpeggio of every degree, one after another), Loop to repeat, and Drone, which holds the root (1) or root and fifth (1+5) under everything. The button says when Loop or Drone is on.

  8. 8

    Exercises

    Once the neck makes sense, train it. Build, Find it, Ear training and Keys are exercises; Study is a clean, full-width neck for playing along. To go back, press Exit or the ✕ on the tab you are in.

  9. 9

    Share, Guide and Settings

    Share copies a link to this exact neck: key, scale or chord, frets and strings. Guide explains how the exercise you are in works, then the colours and every degree. Settings holds what you choose once: note names (C D E or Do Re Mi), sound (Jazz, Nylon, Synth), theme (Auto, Cream, Night), left-handed neck, metronome click and count-in. Flocto remembers them.

Chords

A chord is a few notes. Not twenty dots.

Pick a triad or a seventh chord and the neck shows one voicing: the notes you play together, one per string. Every dot still shows its degree, so you always know which note is the 3 and which the 7.

C minor 7 as one voicing on the strings B, G, D and A: b3 on top, 1 in the bass, with the arrows to move to the next inversion.

Voicings

The arrows under the neck move the chord up through its inversions; the line between them says which degree is on top and which is in the bass. The same notes in a new order, not a new shape to memorise. Play strums them one after another.

Every voicing sits on four strings: e B G D, B G D A or G D A E. A triad has three notes, so one comes twice: the top note again in the bass (1 3 5 1, 3 5 1 3, 5 1 3 5), and with the third on top also the root in the bass (1 5 1 3). Seventh chords are drop 2.

Arpeggio

The other way to see a chord: every chord tone across the neck, to play one note at a time. Play runs through them, and Frets, Strings and Shell work here. Touch one of them and the chord opens as an arpeggio; pick a chord again and you are back on its voicings.

Chords with five notes or more (9, 13…) show as arpeggios for now.

Practice

Four exercises. And a place to play.

Pick them from the tabs at the top. Each keeps your neck as you left it and gives it back when you leave: press Exit or the ✕ on the tab. Guide, at the top, explains the exercise you are in.

Build

A chord (1, 3, 5, 7) or a scale, a zone of a few frets and four strings. The roots are already lit: tap every other note. Each right note shows its degree, each mistake tells you what you touched. Pick Chords or Scales, and Intervals or Notes for what the found notes show, in the panel. Hint, Solution, Next.

Find it

The roots are lit. Find every position of one degree in the zone: every 3, every b7. Always in intervals. It asks the chord tones, 1, 3, 5 and 7, of the scale or chord you had on the neck, like a teacher asking "where is the 3rd? the 5th?".

Both work on four strings at a time, the sets where chords and voicings live: e B G D, B G D A, G D A E. Auto moves to the next set at every question; tap one to stay on it.

Ear training

You hear one note; find its degree on the neck. Hear root plays the root when you want a reference (or switch the Drone on in Options). Replay, Show, Next.

Keys

Key signatures, two questions in turn. A major key: tap the notes it alters and choose sharps or flats. Or a set of sharps or flats: tap its key. Then pick its relative minor. At the end the neck shows the scale with note names, the altered notes ringed.

Study

Not an exercise: the neck alone, full width, with a small bar (Play, tempo, Loop, Drone, Exit) for when you just want to play along. Esc also exits.

On the phone and iPad

Same app, sized for your hand.

Built to sit on a music stand. No account, no download from a store: open the link and play.

  • UprightFive big frets at a time. Swipe the neck or use the arrows to move along it. Play plays the frets on screen; pick zones in What & where to play across more of the neck.
  • SidewaysThe whole neck at once. On an iPad it always fits.
  • Tap and holdTap a fret to hear it, hold it to make it the root.
  • What & whereKey, scale or chord, frets and strings open over the app, with the rest blurred. Options does the same for tempo and rhythm. Done, or a tap outside, closes them.
  • Install itSafari: Share → Add to Home Screen. Chrome: Install app. It opens full screen and works offline.

← Back to Flocto

Flocto on a phone held upright: G7 in a five fret window, with Play and What & where under the neck

Five frets at a time.
Plenty for one hand.