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I made a tool for learning scales, chords, and how to combine them

This started out when I vibe-coded a guitar scale fingering generator. It came out pretty good, and I started adding stuff to it: chords, then how chords and scales interact.Then I added charts for other instruments I mess around with: piano, cello, alto recorder.There's a complexity toggle to go from basic harmony to extended/experimental stuff.It's honestly still mostly a toy, but I thought other people might be interested in playing with it. Source is on github, so it's easy enough to run locally and fork.https://github.com/aleshh/gtr-scales

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FL score

62

out of 100

Verdict

VALIDATE

medium confidence

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An open-source interactive tool for musicians to visualize and explore scales, chords, and harmonic relationships across multiple instruments.

The pain

Musicians struggle to understand how scales and chords work together, especially when learning new instruments or exploring music theory beyond basics. This requires jumping between multiple resources, apps, or trial-and-error.

The gap

Most music theory tools are either overly simplistic (basic chord charts) or overly complex (DAWs, notation software). There's a gap for an interactive, visual, exploratory learning tool that scales from beginner to advanced.

Build angle

Position as a freemium web app with collaborative features (share progressions, community theory explorations). Monetize through premium features (AI-generated practice exercises, personalized learning paths, integration with practice tracking). Keep open-source core to build community.

Strengths

  • Solves a real pain point for musicians at multiple skill levels
  • Multi-instrument support differentiates from single-instrument tools
  • Open-source foundation builds trust and community contribution
  • Creator has genuine passion and domain knowledge (not just chasing trends)
  • Low barrier to entry, web-based, easy to fork and modify
  • Complexity toggle is elegant UX design for progressive disclosure

Risks

  • Monetization unclear, music education market is crowded (Hookpad, Teoria, Chordify)
  • No evidence of product-market fit yet; still self-described as 'a toy'
  • Niche audience (musicians interested in theory); limited TAM without expansion
  • Requires active user education, tool doesn't sell itself without marketing
  • Competitive disadvantage vs. established players with funding and brand
  • Open-source model may cannibalize commercial potential if not carefully managed

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