01 / Scales and exercises
Play it clean before you play it fast.
Follow any scale across the fretboard at your pace or against a click. Then work through four patterns in any key: groups, thirds, folds, and arpeggios.
Your mandolin. Your tempo.
Learn mandolin by playing it.
Interactive lessons and drills that grade what you play, show you what to work on next, and track your progress week to week.
Runs in your browser with no account needed. Audio stays on your device.
iOS app coming soon to the App Store.
9:41
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Mandolin Trainer Listening
Thursday, August 20
Good afternoon
6 day streak · 42 min this week
Today's practice
G major, 88 BPM
Your last run was clean. Add four beats while it is still warm.
ScalesG major, 84 BPM
›ExercisesFolded scale, best 80 BPM
›Chord checkNine chords, twenty-nine shapes
›Home
Practice
Progress
Tuner
Listens livePitch and chord detection
Trains timingOwn pace or metronome
Tracks growthStreaks, bests, weak spots
Plays alongA band behind any chords
Made for real practice
Every pick becomes useful feedback.
Play a drill on your mandolin and see exactly where the run got shaky. The app keeps the result and suggests what to practice next.
02 / Chord shapes
Know when every string speaks.
Six lessons build from three moveable shapes to minors and sevenths, and every chord gets a verdict from what the microphone heard.
03 / Reading and tunes
Turn notation into music.
Learn the staff in short lessons, read fresh phrases the app writes for you, then open the tune shelf: real tunes on the staff with tab underneath, at whatever tempo you can manage today.
04 / Progress and daily plan
See what is changing.
Your practice history shapes each day's plan: a scale that has gone quiet comes back, and a clean run earns a faster tempo.
05 / Jam
Play with a band that listens back.
Pick a chart and a tempo and the band plays it while the current bar lights up. The chop meter grades your backbeat as you comp.
The lessons are a shelf of short sections in a suggested order, nothing locked: start with reading and chords, work toward playing at a jam. Also inside: keys, double stops, left hand and picking drills, find the note, a tuner one tap away, and a tune shelf with tab under every tune.
How a session goes
Put the phone down. Pick the mandolin up.
The app tells you what to play. Once a drill starts, you can keep both hands on the instrument.
01
Allow the microphone
Your browser analyzes the audio right on your device. Nothing uploads, and you can play without signing in.
02
Open today's practice or a lesson
Today shows a short practice plan built from your history, and the lesson you are in. The Lessons tab holds every section, in a suggested order with nothing locked.
03
Play what it asks for
The app asks for a note, a chord, a scale, or a phrase, and grades it as you play. Every run lands in your history, and a passed lesson is ticked off in its section.
Your next clean run starts here.
Open Mandolin Trainer in your browser, allow the microphone, and play. Add it to your home screen so it is one tap away at the music stand. It is free while in beta, and an iOS app is on its way to the App Store.
Open Mandolin Trainer
Works best in Chrome or Safari · iOS app coming soon
Free for everyone, no account needed.
The references on this site are free to read and free to print, and they stay that way.
TunesNotation with mandolin tab under it, chord letters over the changes, and playback.WorkbooksEight and twelve week plans you follow a day at a time, on screen or printed: Bach, bluegrass, and the fretboard.ChordsA diagram and the fingering for every chord you need, plus a printable chart.JamChord charts for the tunes a jam calls, with a bass and guitar that play along.TunerA tuner that listens through your microphone and names the course it hears.Circle of fifthsWhy the four strings are four spokes of the wheel, and a chart to keep beside you.
Tunes to start with
Found a rough edge?Something confusing, broken, or missing? Tell us right here. We read every note.