FiveMinuteFretboard — Justin Mandell

Brief

Many guitarists learn shapes, patterns, and songs long before they truly know the notes on the fretboard. I’ve been playing since I was a kid and still find myself hunting for notes, which made improvisation, reading, and transposing feel slower than it should. It always felt like a door was closed to me...

5MinuteFretboard started as a tool I built for myself to turn “learn the whole neck” into a small, repeatable habit. The app breaks the fretboard into four short exercises that gradually increase difficulty and keeps each session to five minute daily chunks. After completing the core progression, players unlock a mastery mode with a customizable metronome so they can test recall at higher tempos on both iPad and iPhone.

Jobs to Be Done

Job Performer

Learning guitarist (primary); guitar teacher/coach (secondary).

Internalize fretboard note locations for reliable recall across keys
Target the next most valuable notes, strings, or positions based on recent errors
Measure progress after each short, time-boxed session

User Group

Started as a scratch-my-own-itch: a long-time player who hadn’t fully internalized note names, which slowed improvisation, reading, and transposing. Generalized, the primary user is a guitarist who can play songs and common shapes but wants faster, more confident note recall across the fretboard. The practice model fits as a small, repeatable ritual—five minutes a day—rather than a theory-heavy session.

Main Job

Recall the correct note for any string–fret position while playing in any key.

Top 3 Desired Outcomes

Minimize the time it takes to recall the correct note name for any prompted string–fret location at a chosen tempo.
Minimize the likelihood that recall relies on shape memorization instead of note-name recognition during improvisation.
Minimize the likelihood that session duration varies beyond the five-minute time box.

Impact

🕔 Five-minute sessions encourage consistent daily practice.
🎯 Targeted drills accelerate weak-area improvement.
📈 Adaptive pacing increases correct notes per minute at a chosen tempo.

Design Concepts

Design sketches — Early sketch exploring how to layout the fretboard exercise.

Visual Designs

Visuals — Final UI showing iPad exercise progressions from initial welcome tutorial/directions through to completing an exercise.

Designed to feel equally at home on iPad and iPhones, layouts adapt to portrait and landscape so players can practice wherever they happen to be.