Skill Development
Learning Path & Scale Map
The two guided routes through the app: step-by-step modules with exams, and the scale tree you clear box by box at a target tempo.
Most of riff.quest lets you practise whatever you feel like. These two don't: they hand you the next thing to do, and won't open the door after it until you've done it.
Learning Path
Modules made of stages, stages made of steps, and an exam at the end of each stage.
Two modules are live today, Fundamentals and Fretboard Mastery, with rhythm, scales and improvisation marked as coming soon. Each step comes with instructions, a checklist and tips.
No prerequisites, on either module
The next step opens once you've marked the one before it complete
Both live modules are open from day one, and only the steps inside them unlock in sequence
Fretboard Mastery works by clicking, not listening: you're shown a note name and you click where it lives on the fretboard, so it works fine without a microphone. Exams are graded on accuracy:
Scale Map
Nine scale families, each broken into the shapes you actually play.
The map covers minor and major pentatonic, natural minor, major, and the five modes. The pentatonics use the box names you'd get from a teacher: Box 1 to 5, in the order you'd learn them, with the fret each shape sits at written underneath. The other scales have no box names, so their shapes go by the fret they start on.
Each scale family opens with a gate you clear at 80 BPM
Ascending, descending, both together, thirds, fourths and two sequences
Each pattern asks you to hold 95 BPM for 90 seconds
Clearing all seven patterns in a shape unlocks a reward node worth 100 points and 50 Fame
100 points
50 FameThe reward isn't automatic. Hitting the tempo unlocks the node, but you have to open it and claim it.
Each node shows where you stand (locked, available, in progress or done) based on the tempo you've actually recorded on it. The map opens up as you get faster, not as time passes.
Questions people ask
Do I need a microphone?
Not for the Learning Path, since Fretboard Mastery is click-based. Modules that do grade your playing say so and won't let you skip the prompt, see note detection. The Scale Map tracks the tempo you record on each pattern
Can I skip a step?
No, that's rather the point. Steps open in order
What if I fail an exam?
Nothing happens except that it stays unfinished. Retake it whenever
Does this count as practice?
Yes, time spent here logs like any other session