Chord Finder

How to use this chord finder

Click each note button that matches a note in your chord. As soon as two or more notes are selected, the tool compares your selection against a dictionary of standard chord shapes and shows every exact match underneath. If your selection is only part of a recognized chord, for example you have picked a root and a fifth but not the third yet, the tool also shows the closest chords you could complete by adding one more note, so you are not stuck guessing.

Note names use sharps (C#, D#, F#, G#, A#) in the selection buttons, but a matched chord's result always shows both spellings where they differ (for example C#/Db), since a chord's notes are sometimes written with flats depending on the key. Press Play on the result to hear the selected notes as a chord through your device's speakers, useful for checking that what you selected actually sounds like what you were hearing.

• Click a note to select it, click again to deselect it
• Two notes alone are not enough to name a chord (you need at least a root and one more interval), three or more give a real result
• An exact match shows the chord's full name and quality
• A partial match tells you which single note to add to complete a known chord
• Nothing you select is sent anywhere, the matching happens instantly in your own browser

How chords are built: a quick guide to intervals

Every chord starts with a root note and adds other notes at specific distances above it, measured in semitones (the smallest step on a piano, the space from one key to the very next one, black or white). A basic three-note chord, called a triad, is built from a root, a third, and a fifth.

The type of third decides whether a triad sounds major or minor. A major third is 4 semitones above the root; a minor third is 3 semitones above the root. Stack a perfect fifth (7 semitones above the root) on top of either, and you get the two most common triads in music: major (root, major third, perfect fifth) and minor (root, minor third, perfect fifth). Everything else, diminished, augmented, sixths, sevenths, ninths and suspended chords, is a variation on exactly this same idea: a specific, fixed set of semitone distances above the root.

This tool checks your selected notes against every root and every one of these formulas, all 12 roots at once, so it does not matter which key your chord happens to be in.

Worked examples

Example 1: a simple major triad. Select C, E and G. These three notes are 4 semitones and then 3 more semitones apart (root to E is a major third, E to G is a minor third), which is the exact formula for a major triad. The tool returns C Major.

Example 2: telling major and minor apart. Select C, Eb and G instead, changing only the middle note. The distance from C to Eb is now 3 semitones, a minor third, while G stays a perfect fifth above the root. That single changed note is the entire difference between a major and a minor chord, and the tool correctly returns C Minor.

Example 3: a dominant 7th. Select C, E, G and Bb. This adds a fourth note, 10 semitones above the root, to the major triad from example 1. The tool returns C7 (Dominant 7th), the chord that gives blues and jazz progressions their characteristic pull back toward the next chord.

Example 4: a partial match. Select only C and G, a root and a fifth with no third in between (sometimes called a power chord in guitar contexts). Because this is missing the note that decides major or minor, the tool lists it as a partial match: add E to get C Major, or add Eb to get C Minor, so you can see both options at a glance instead of guessing.

Every chord type this tool recognizes

Beyond the basic major and minor triads, this chord finder also recognizes the following chord qualities, checked against all 12 possible roots:

Common mistakes when identifying a chord by ear

Mixing up the octave with the note name. A chord's name never depends on which octave a note is played in, only on which of the 12 note names is present. Playing a C in a low register and another C two octaves higher is still just "C": it does not add a new note to the chord.

Forgetting the bass note can differ from the root. This tool identifies the notes present in a chord and names it from its root upward. In real music, a chord is sometimes played with a different note in the bass (a slash chord, written like C/E for a C major chord with E in the bass); the notes selected here would still correctly identify it as C Major, since the note set is identical, only the voicing (which note sits lowest) changes.

Confusing a sharp with the next natural note. C# and Db are the exact same key on a piano and the exact same pitch, so the tool never distinguishes between them for matching purposes. Which spelling is "correct" depends on the musical key you are in, which is why results are shown with both spellings where they differ.

Selecting notes that do not form any standard chord. Not every combination of notes has a common name. If your selection returns no match and no close partial match, try removing one note at a time to see if a smaller, more familiar shape (like a plain triad) is hiding inside a larger cluster.

Where a chord finder like this is useful

Songwriters use a chord finder to name a shape they stumbled onto by ear before they can write it into a chart or share it with a bandmate. Guitar and piano students use one to check their own transcription work against the actual chord a teacher played. Producers sampling or remixing a recording use one to figure out what key and chord a sample is in before building around it. In every case, the workflow is the same: identify the individual notes first, by ear, from sheet music, or from an instrument, then let the tool do the interval math instantly instead of working it out by hand.

If you play piano, the piano chord finder gives you an actual clickable keyboard instead of a plain note list. Guitarists can use the guitar chord finder to identify a shape from what is fretted, or look up a diagram for any chord by name.