LilyPond wiki - User contributions [en]

Creating guitar scales on fretboards

2026-03-01T09:03:11Z

Taifas: D major with 2 sharps

This snippet creates fretboards with guitar scales.

The syntax is

\scale-diagramm #'( (string1 fret1) (string2 fret2) ... ) #notesinscale #size

For example for a c pentatonic scale (first six notes)

\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5 ) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 5)) #5 #1.5

you can wrap this up in a markup command for building up a list of scales

cpenta = \markup \scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5 ) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 5)) #5 #1.5

and use it like this

c^\cpenta d f g a c

The snippet doesn't show it, but the (1) position of the scale is inverted

<lilypond version="2.24" full>
%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=790

\paper { tagline = ##f }

%here starts the snippet:

% Helper function to invert first elements of scales
#(define (inverted num mod)
(if (zero? (modulo num mod))
(list '1 'inverted)
(list (1+ (modulo num mod)))))

% Expand the (string fret) pairs to valid lilypond syntax
#(define (fret-from-list l1 l2 n1)
(if (null? l1)
l2
(fret-from-list (cdr l1) (append l2 (list (append '(place-fret) (car l1) (inverted (length l2) n1)))) n1)))

% arg1 is the list of (string fret) pairs making up the scale
% arg2 is the number of unique tones in the scale (i.e. 7 for major scale, 5 for pentatonic)
% arg3 is a scale factor used to enlarge the fret diagram
#(define-markup-command (scale-diagramm layout props arg1 arg2 arg3) (list? integer? number?)
(interpret-markup layout props
(markup
(#:override (cons 'size arg3 )
(#:override '(fret-diagram-details
. (
(finger-code . in-dot)
(number-type . arabic)
(label-dir . -1)
(orientation . landscape)
(dot-radius . 0.4)
(fret-count . 8)
(top-fret-thickness . 7)))
#:fret-diagram-verbose
(fret-from-list arg1 '() arg2))))))

cmajor=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5) (4 2) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 4)
(3 5) (2 3) (2 5) (2 6) (1 3) (1 5) (1 7) (1 8)) #7 #1.0

dmajor=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 5) (5 7) (4 4) (4 5) (4 7) (3 4) (3 6)
(3 7) (2 5) (2 7) (2 8) (1 5) (1 7) (1 9) (1 10)) #7 #1.35

cpenta=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2)
(3 5) (2 3) (2 6) (1 3) (1 5) (1 8)) #5 #1.7

\layout {
indent = 0
}

\relative c' {
c d^\cmajor e f g^"c Ionic" a b c d e f g a b c r | \break
d,, e^\dmajor fis g a^"d Ionic" b cis d e fis g a b cis d r | \break
c,, d^\cpenta f g a^"c pentatonic" a c d f g a c |
}
</lilypond>

[[Category:Fretted strings]]
[[Category:Fretted strings]]
[[Category:Scheme]]
[[Category:Pitches]]
[[Category:Snippet]]

Creating guitar scales on fretboards

2026-03-01T08:56:31Z

Taifas: d ionic: d e f-sharp g ...

This snippet creates fretboards with guitar scales.

The syntax is

\scale-diagramm #'( (string1 fret1) (string2 fret2) ... ) #notesinscale #size

For example for a c pentatonic scale (first six notes)

\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5 ) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 5)) #5 #1.5

you can wrap this up in a markup command for building up a list of scales

cpenta = \markup \scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5 ) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 5)) #5 #1.5

and use it like this

c^\cpenta d f g a c

The snippet doesn't show it, but the (1) position of the scale is inverted

<lilypond version="2.24" full>
%% http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=790

\paper { tagline = ##f }

%here starts the snippet:

% Helper function to invert first elements of scales
#(define (inverted num mod)
(if (zero? (modulo num mod))
(list '1 'inverted)
(list (1+ (modulo num mod)))))

% Expand the (string fret) pairs to valid lilypond syntax
#(define (fret-from-list l1 l2 n1)
(if (null? l1)
l2
(fret-from-list (cdr l1) (append l2 (list (append '(place-fret) (car l1) (inverted (length l2) n1)))) n1)))

% arg1 is the list of (string fret) pairs making up the scale
% arg2 is the number of unique tones in the scale (i.e. 7 for major scale, 5 for pentatonic)
% arg3 is a scale factor used to enlarge the fret diagram
#(define-markup-command (scale-diagramm layout props arg1 arg2 arg3) (list? integer? number?)
(interpret-markup layout props
(markup
(#:override (cons 'size arg3 )
(#:override '(fret-diagram-details
. (
(finger-code . in-dot)
(number-type . arabic)
(label-dir . -1)
(orientation . landscape)
(dot-radius . 0.4)
(fret-count . 8)
(top-fret-thickness . 7)))
#:fret-diagram-verbose
(fret-from-list arg1 '() arg2))))))

cmajor=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5) (4 2) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2) (3 4)
(3 5) (2 3) (2 5) (2 6) (1 3) (1 5) (1 7) (1 8)) #7 #1.0

dmajor=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 5) (5 7) (4 4) (4 5) (4 7) (3 4) (3 6)
(3 7) (2 5) (2 7) (2 8) (1 5) (1 7) (1 9) (1 10)) #7 #1.35

cpenta=\markup\scale-diagramm #'((5 3) (5 5) (4 3) (4 5) (3 2)
(3 5) (2 3) (2 6) (1 3) (1 5) (1 8)) #5 #1.7

\layout {
indent = 0
}

\relative c' {
c d^\cmajor e f g^"c Ionic" a b c d e f g a b c r | \break
d,, e^\dmajor fs g a^"d Ionic" b c d e f g a b c d r | \break
c,, d^\cpenta f g a^"c pentatonic" a c d f g a c |
}
</lilypond>

[[Category:Fretted strings]]
[[Category:Fretted strings]]
[[Category:Scheme]]
[[Category:Pitches]]
[[Category:Snippet]]

Talk:Fret diagrams

2026-02-14T08:19:43Z

Taifas: /* Thank you */ new section

== Thank you ==

It helped my to understand the ways of impementing and noting custom chord-fretboards. Thank you for posting. Very valuable and structured post. [[User:Taifas|Taifas]] ([[User talk:Taifas|talk]]) 08:19, 14 February 2026 (UTC)