THE EQUIPMENT
The hand-crafted birchwood game board represents the first 12 frets and 6 strings of a guitar. The open string notes are located on the blue section adjacent to the first fret.

Each player has 84 music chips, 78 of which match the 78 notes on the game board (most of which are not normally used in an average game – see "Playing Less Frets"). On the top side of each of the 78 chips is a letter note, and underneath is the corresponding musical notation. Each player has six Undercover Octave chips (8va & 8va bassa) to force notes that have been picked (see "Picking Notes") to move one octave up or down the board (see "Undercover Octaves").

Two Fretters Cheat Sheets can be used as a reference to help match the music chips to the spaces on the board. (The sharp and flat notes are not included on the Cheat Sheet for cosmetic reasons only.) Also listed are the basic chords and a scale to reference the octaves.

A pair of dice is used to direct the number of spaces moved by each player.

OBJECT
By entering through any of the strings on the 12th fret side (right side) of the board, each player must try to move his/her music chips, letter-side-up, across the board and pick notes on any of the six open strings. An open string note is picked when a player ends a move by landing on the matching note space on the blue section of that string. The chip is then turned music notation side up.

Once an open note is picked by a player, the rest of the notes on that particular string are available to be picked by that same player. The first player to have all notes of a string picked simultaneously announces "Fretters!" and wins the game.

MAKING MOVES
After the roll of the dice determines which player goes first, each player in turn throws the dice and moves a music chip the number of spaces indicated by the dice. The spaces on which to move are located directly on the silver strings in between the brown fret lines.

The first space a player enters the board is always on one of the six spaces on the 12th fret.

The music chips are moved, letter-side-up, in any direction horizontally and vertically, and may not cross over or land on the same space twice during a move. A player can move across other chips that are letter side up, but must move around picked notes (i.e., chips that are music notation side up).

A player may move a music chip off the board and play it again at a later time. The chip must exit from the 12th fret side of the board.

A player may choose not to move. After the roll of the dice the player may simply "pass".

PICKING NOTES
A note on the game board is picked when a player lands on a space with a music chip of matching notation. The chip is then turned music notation side up. It can only be removed when forced to move one octave by an Undercover Octave chip (see "Undercover Octaves"). Players must move around notes that have been picked; cannot pass over them like the other chips on the board.

Notes on a string can only be picked by a player after picking the open note (blue section) of that particular string. Once an open note has been picked, there is no particular order in which the other notes on the string must be picked.

When a chip on a picked open note space (blue section) is forced to move one octave by an Undercover Octave chip (see "Undercover Octaves") the player cannot pick any of the other notes on that string until that open note space has been picked again by the player.

If a player picks a note that is occupied by a letter side up music chip, it is removed from the board and can be played again.

If a letter side up chip occupies a space of its matching music notation, it can be picked (i.e., turned notation side up) by either rolling a two or moving off the space and returning in a later move.

MUTING NOTES
A player can mute another letter side up music chip by landing on it with a chip of the same music notation. The muted note is then removed from the board and given to the player to be played again. If it turns out that the two chips do not have identical music notation, the player who made the move removes his/her chip from the board and can be played again.

Only chips of the same letter note may attempt to mute one another.

A player may mute his/her own music chips from the board.

Players never have to reveal the underside music notation to the opponent until it lands on another chip or is landed on by another chip.

UNDERCOVER OCTAVES
Octave comes from the Greek word for 'eight'. An Octave is the distance between two notes with the same name, eight notes apart in a scale.

From one C to the next C higher is an Octave:

The second C is one octave higher than the first C – because it is eight notes higher up the scale. The first C is one octave lower than the second C. The same applies to all notes.

Both players have six Undercover Octave chips: three 8va chips and three 8va bassa chips. These are the only music chips in Fretters that can force chips on picked notes to move off their spaces.

When an 8va chip lands on a picked note, the picked chip must move to a space one octave higher and is turned letter side up. An 8va bassa chip is similar but forces a picked chip to move one octave down the scale. (Notes that are too far up the scale to move another octave are simply removed from the board. Notes that are too far down the scale are immune from the 8va bassa chips.)

When a picked chip is forced to move one octave to a space that is already occupied by another picked chip, that chip is in turn moved one octave, and so on. (If there is no room it is removed from the board). If the space is occupied by a letter side up chip of the same music notation, the chip on the occupied space is muted and removed from the board. If the letter side up chip is different, the chip that had been forced to move is muted and removed from the board.

Some notes have more than one Octave. The player who made the move decides to which octave the opponent's music chip is moved.

Once a letter side up octave chip is either used or landed on by another chip, it is turned octave symbol side up (exposed) and continues to play until it is removed from the board. If it is exposed by another chip landing on it, that chip is removed from the board and can be played again.

Once an Undercover Octave chip is exposed it may be captured by the opponent by landing on it with any chip. When this happens the octave chip is kept by the opponent for the duration of the game.

A player may land a chip on his/her own exposed Octave chip to remove it from the board and can be played again. Also, an Octave chip may be used to force a player's own picked chip to move an octave up or down the board.

Octave chips have no effect on letter side up music chips.

Only one each of the Undercover Octave chips are used when playing through frets one, two, three, or four (see "Playing Less Frets"); two each of the Undercover Octave chips are used when playing through frets five, six, seven, or eight; and all three each of the Octave chips are used when playing through frets nine, ten, eleven, or twelve.

Refer to the Fretters Cheat Sheet to view the Octaves on the scale.

PLAYING LESS FRETS
Playing all 12 frets of Fretters can be a long, involved, calculating experience! The two players may decide to play less number of frets. (A good game is five frets.) The minimum that can be played is the first fret and open strings (blue section). Chips matching notes on the frets not being played are simply set aside for the duration of the game.

The spaces on which to begin moves are always one of the notes on the 12th fret, regardless of how many frets of the board are being played.

OTHER FUN GAMES

Playing Chords     Instead of picking notes on a string to win the game, pick notes to complete a chord. Example: to complete the D Major chord a player must pick the open A note (blue section) of the 5th string; the open D note (blue section) of the 4th string; the A sharp-B flat note on the 3rd string, which is located on the 2nd fret; the D note on the 2nd string, which is located on the 3rd fret; and the F sharp-G flat note on the 1st string, which is located on the 2nd fret. None of the notes on the 6th string need to be picked to complete the D Major chord.

When "Playing Chords" the only music chips that are used by each player are the chips matching the first six frets of the board, the open string notes (blue section), and 2 each of the Undercover Octave chips.

Refer to the back side of the Fretters Cheat Sheet to view the basic chords.

Fretters Keepers     Play Fretters as described above but with one difference: rather than returning muted chips to the players to be played again, they are kept by the opponents for the duration of the game.

No Dice     Play Fretters as described in either of the above two games but no dice are used. The players alternate one move at a time – similar to checkers.

If a letter-side-up chip occupies a space of its matching music notation, it may be picked (i.e., turned notation side up) in place of the player's turn to move.

Domino Fretters     The music chips are separated by color and placed in separate paper bags or bowls. Player 1 randomly selects a chip and places it on a matching space of the board. Player 1 then selects another chip and if possible places it on the matching space adjacent to the first chip. Player 1 continues this process until he/she is unable to place a chip next to the chips on the board. The turn is then passed to Player 2. The process alternates between players.

At any time during a player's turn he/she may place as many of the drawn chips as possible next to the other same color chips on the board.

The first player to place a music chip on every space of the board wins.

For a quicker game play less number of frets.

(Undercover Octave chips are not used when playing Domino Fretters .)

Tic-Tac-Chords

Version 1: Each player gathers his/her chips matching the notes to the first 6 frets and open strings (blue section) of the board. Both players take turns placing a chip on its matching note on the board. Chips of both colors may occupy the open string notes, but only one color at a time may occupy the other spaces. The first player to place chips on all notes of three complete chords of a key wins.

For a quicker game play to complete only one chord.

Version 2: Similar to the version described above except the music chips from both players may occupy spaces on the board. When a chord is completed, the player collects all chips from that chord, not to be played again. The game continues until the players run out of chips. The player who collects the most chips wins.

(Undercover Octave chips are not used when playing Tic-Tac-Chords.)

Helpful suggestions:

1) Playing Fretters is easier and more enjoyable once you have memorized the location of every note on the game board. You can achieve this by placing the chips to the open notes, notation side up, next to the board and quickly place them, letter-side-up, on the matching spaces of the board. Then remove them from the board and do it again. Repeat this approximately one zillion times.

After a while incorporate the chips to the notes on the first fret. Do this another one zillion times.

Slowly and incrementally add a few more chips until you know the placement of all 78 chips on the board about as well as you know the spelling of your first name. This might seem difficult, but with a little patience it's actually a piece of cake.

2) If you are used to playing a certain number of frets, such as 1 - 5 and open strings for example, store the music chips to those spaces separately from the others when you are through playing Fretters. The next time you play setting up will be quick and easy.

3) For more information about Fretters, and a lot of other neat stuff about music and musicians, visit the Fretters website at www.Fretters.com.

 

Fretters
P.O. Box 24553
San Jose, CA 95154-4553
USA