Introducing Our Free Interactive Music Tools

Learning an instrument is a lot easier when you can see it, hear it and try it yourself. So our teachers built a set of free interactive music tools for guitar, piano, ukulele, drums and music theory.

There are now 23 free music tools in all, made to help you practice between lessons. They work on any phone, tablet or computer, with no download and no sign-up, and several come with free printable PDFs. Explore at home, then bring what you learn to your next lesson. Here’s a tour, starting with what’s brand new.

New this month

Beat Maker

Program drums and bass on a 16-step grid in six styles, from hip-hop and trap to house. When you’ve made something you like, share your beat with a link. It’s a great first step into music production.

Parts of a Drum Set

Tap an acoustic kit and an electronic kit to hear every piece, and see why they look different but work the same way. Perfect for new drummers and parents shopping for a first kit.

Ukulele Sizes and Tunings

Compare soprano, concert, tenor, baritone and bass ukuleles, hear each tuning, and finally understand reentrant tuning. There’s a chord explorer for every size, too.

Piano Scale Fingering

Right-hand and left-hand fingering for every major and minor scale, in one or two octaves. Keep it open on a tablet next to the piano while you practice.

Harmonic Progression vs. Regression

Why does V–I sound final while V–IV feels backwards? Build phrases on the piano, hear how chords move, and test your ear with a quiz.

Atonal Music Lab

For advanced students and composers: build a twelve-tone row, check it for hidden keys, and explore all 48 forms in the 12×12 matrix.

Not sure where to start?

Pick your instrument and start with the tool our teachers recommend first:

Chords and harmony

  • Chord Progression Builder: our most popular tool. Build a progression in any key with diatonic, borrowed and secondary dominant chords, hear it, and print a chart with chord diagrams for guitar, ukulele or piano.
  • Chord Calculator: spell any chord and see it on piano, guitar and ukulele, with every inversion.
  • Circle of Fifths: tap any key to see and hear its key signature, relative minor and chords. Includes a printable PDF.
  • Three-Note Pitch Classes: all 19 three-note shapes on a pitch-class clock, with their mirror images.

Scales and keys

  • Scale Degree Functions: the tonic is home and the dominant is work. Hear all 7 scale degrees as places on a map, in any key.
  • Minor Pentatonic Scale: all 5 positions in any key on an interactive fretboard, plus the blue note.
  • The 7 Modes: hear every mode from bright Lydian to dark Locrian and see the note that gives each one its character.
  • Harmonic Minor Scale: compare natural, harmonic and melodic minor in any key and hear their chords, with a 168-page PDF.

Guitar tunings and play-alongs

  • Drop D Tuning: compare Drop D with standard tuning and try one-finger power chords.
  • Open Tunings: hear open G, D, E, A and C, and see why barring any fret makes a chord.
  • All 4ths Tuning (EADGCF): every string a perfect 4th apart, so chord and scale shapes never change.
  • G7 Blues Backing Track: a 12-bar swing blues in G at 94 BPM, with the chord chart and the best scales to solo with.

For new students and parents

Want a step-by-step path through theory?

Our Guitar Music Theory Guide puts the theory tools in teaching order, from your first scale degrees to chords, keys, modes and advanced harmony. You’ll find every tool in one place on our Free Music Tools page.

Tools are great. A teacher is better.

Our interactive music tools help you explore, but a teacher shows you how to use them in real music, catches habits early and keeps you moving forward. We offer private lessons for every age and level in Canton, in guitar, piano, drums, ukulele, bass, voice, music production and songwriting. Book a lesson or call or text us at 734-667-4983.

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