Melody Master

The guitar is a difficult instrument to learn. It requires acute hand-eye coordination and the ability to visualize chords and scales on the fretboard. These skills take lots of time to develop. Making the learning process more efficient would be useful to users who have limited free time. Melody Master is a device that would meet this need by displaying LEDs on the fretboard. The lights would help the user learn chords, scales, and notes through visualization. By seeing exactly where to place his or her fingers on the fretboard, the user can learn chord and scale shapes on the guitar quickly. As guitar players ourselves, we know the difficulties associated with visualizing chords and scales and building muscle memory. Melody Master will help users to gain these skills quickly. The prototype system has been constructed using an Arduino microcontroller, integrated circuit LED drivers, and low-profile RGB LEDs. The software has been written primarily in C, and the hardware circuit is built on low-profile, flexible PCB substrate. The flexible circuit is used so the system can sit tightly against the surface of the guitar and provide minimal inhibition to the user’s fretting hand. The circuit is attached to the guitar using a simple, removable system. The current prototype uses wired SPI serial communication to transmit data from the Arduino to the LED drivers. The system meets the core requirements for this product. Chords and scales can be selected and shown on the device. Additional feedback is provided to the user using a microphone that detects when a note has been played. This feature allows the user to learn a scale at their own pace, note by note. By showing the notes directly on the guitar fretboard, Melody Master will help guitarists to learn the instrument quickly.