Never forget a song again.
Fret Not is a free iOS guitar songbook app for beginners. Whether you learned a song at a campfire or from YouTube, keep every chord, tuning, strumming pattern, and capo position in one place.
Free on iPhone & iPad
Fret Not is built for the way beginners actually learn guitar — one song at a time. Every chord, capo position, and strumming pattern you pick up becomes part of a songbook that grows with you.
Add the first song you're learning, then the next, and the next. Organize them however you like, and filter by chord, capo, or list. Your library, your way.
Once a song is in your songbook, capture every detail that matters: chords, tuning settings, strumming patterns, capo position, and your personal notes — all at a glance.
Stuck on a chord shape you can't name? Tap the fretboard to instantly identify any guitar chord, then add it directly to your song with one tap.
Before you play, tune up without leaving the app. High-precision pitch detection keeps your guitar perfectly in tune — no separate tuning app required.
Adding songs by hand gets old fast. Import songs from your Spotify library, or share a song from Ultimate Guitar to bring in chords, capo position, and lyrics automatically.
Over time, every chord you've learned becomes part of your personal chord library. Browse what you know, reference it whenever you need it, and see how far you've come.
Fret Not is a free iOS guitar songbook app for beginners. It tracks every song you've learned — chords, capo positions, strumming patterns, and tuning — so you never forget how to play them.
Yes. Fret Not is completely free on iPhone and iPad, with no ads and no in-app purchases. It's a side project — I'm learning to play guitar while learning to build apps, and Fret Not gets better with every release. Feedback and ideas are always welcome.
Fret Not is available for iPhone and iPad. It requires iOS 17 or later. There is no Android or web version.
Yes. Fret Not focuses on the basics every beginner actually uses: chords, capo, strumming patterns, and tuning — without tablature complexity, ads, or pro features pushing you to upgrade. If you can play your first chord, you can use Fret Not.
Yes. Your songbook is stored on your device, so you can browse it and play along without an internet connection. Optional iCloud sync keeps your library in sync across your iPhone and iPad.
Yes. You can import songs directly from your Spotify library into Fret Not, then add the chords, capo, strumming pattern, and other details as you learn them. You can also play the song on Spotify directly from inside the app, so you can play along while practicing.
Yes. Share any song from the Ultimate Guitar app and Fret Not imports the chords, capo position, and lyrics directly into your songbook.
Not yet — automatic chord detection is a feature we're working on. For now, Fret Not suggests likely chords based on the song's key and capo position, but you'll need to know the chords yourself when adding a song manually. Alternatively, import the song from Ultimate Guitar to bring in the chords and lyrics automatically.
Yes. Fret Not includes a virtual fretboard chord identifier (tap notes to identify any chord) and a built-in high-precision guitar tuner.
I'm Alexa Kaminsky, a product designer learning to play guitar. I built the first version of Fret Not in one week using Claude Code, and launched it in December 2025.