Fretscape is a chord tool for guitarists. It finds every playable voicing for any chord, rates each one by how hard it is to play, and — when you've got a sequence of chords — picks the voicings that flow together with the least hand movement. You can try it free on the web or install the Android app.

What's inside

Type a chord name like Cmaj7 or Bm7b5 and Fretscape returns every playable way to play it on the neck. Not the same five shapes you already know — every voicing that's physically playable for your setup, across the whole fretboard. That's hundreds of options for most chords: in standard tuning, Am7 alone has over 500 playable voicings.

The library scales with you. Beginners get around 50,000 voicings tailored to their ability. Intermediate players unlock over 125,000. Advanced players get nearly 170,000 — all in a single tuning. Across all 16 preset tunings plus any custom tunings you create, that's over 2.5 million playable voicings in total.

Once you've got the list, narrow it down by what actually matters: difficulty level, fret range, finger count, hand shape, inversions, bass note, open chords only, hide barres — any combination. The result is the voicings that work for you, not a wall of shapes you'll never use.

Each voicing comes with multiple fingering options. The same fret pattern can be played with different fingers, and each option gets its own difficulty rating — Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced — plus tags that explain why, things like Full Barre, Wide Stretch, or Easy Grip. Tap any voicing and Fretscape plays it back through your device so you can hear it before you commit.

You can also work the other way around: tap fret positions on a virtual neck and Fretscape names the chord, including inversions and slash-chord interpretations.

A few other things worth knowing about: capo support that recalculates every voicing for the fret you're at; automatic key detection in the Progression Builder that handles modes like Dorian and Phrygian, blues 7ths, and borrowed chords; favourites and collections so anything you find sticks around for next time.

What makes it different

Most chord tools show you shapes in isolation. They have no idea what chord you're going to next, so they can't help you pick the voicing that flows best from the one you just played.

Fretscape is built around movement. When you put two chords next to each other, it looks at what your hand actually has to do to make the change — how far each finger travels, which ones can stay anchored where they are, whether a barre carries through or has to be reformed, whether you're shifting position. 40+ physical movement factors, measured for every transition. It's not guessing which fingering is easier; it's measuring.

The Progression Builder takes that one step further. Give it a sequence — Am → F → C → G — and it checks every voicing and every fingering for every chord, against every voicing and every fingering for the next. For a four-chord progression, that's over 100,000 possible transitions scored against those 40+ factors, every time. The path it returns is the one your hands have to work the least to play. Sometimes that means a voicing that's slightly harder on its own — because that choice makes the changes around it dramatically easier.

Underneath this sits a unique idea: voicing variations. The same chord, maybe with the notes moved around slightly, or could be dropping a bass note/treble note, sounds very similar especially in the context of a song — but the physical path to the next chord changes completely. Fretscape can swap an F for an F variation that anchors a finger into the following C without changing how the chord sounds. Same harmony, easier change.

The fingering analysis underneath is its own thing too: 45+ factors per fingering option, not a single difficulty number. Stretch, barre type, finger crowding, thumb usage, awkward orderings — combined and weighed so you see the whole picture, not just a label.

If you've ever been told "just practise harder" when a chord change felt awkward, Fretscape's answer is more often "try a different shape".

What it isn't

• It's not a static chord dictionary — though you can use it like one if you want. Type a chord and Fretscape returns the voicings for your tuning, capo, and difficulty. They're not pulled from a fixed list; they're worked out for your setup.
• It's not a tab editor, a backing-track player, or a learning course. It's specifically a chord and progression tool.
• It's currently built for 6-string guitar only. Bass, 7- and 8-string, and other fretted instruments aren't supported.

For the full rundown of what Fretscape does, see the features page. For who it's aimed at, see Who is Fretscape for?.

Fretscape is free to start using. If you want every voicing, every tuning, and the full Progression Optimiser, Pro is a one-time purchase — you pay for it once, not every month. See Is Fretscape free? and Free vs Pro for what's in each tier.