🎼 Music Tools

Chord Finder

Look up any chord on piano and guitar, hear it, and work backwards from notes to a chord name.

C

C (root) · E (3rd) · G (5th)

Highlighted keys belong to the chord. Click any key to hear it.

Guitar shapes — tap a diagram to hear it

Chords in the key of C major

These seven chords are built from the notes of the C major scale, so any combination of them sounds like it belongs together.

Want to play these on a full keyboard? Open the Virtual Piano →
Overview

Chord Finder: every chord on piano and guitar

Pick a root note and a chord type and this tool shows you the chord on a piano keyboard, gives you up to five playable guitar shapes, names every interval it contains, and plays it back so you can hear what you are looking at. The guitar shapes are not pulled from a fixed chord book — they are worked out from the chord's notes and standard tuning, so every chord in every key is covered, including the ones most chord charts skip.

It also works in reverse. Switch to 'Name my notes', click the keys you are holding, and it tells you what the chord is called. That is the fastest way to identify something you found by ear, or to check what a chord in a piece of sheet music actually is.

100% freePiano + guitarHear every chordReverse lookup
How to use it
  1. 1Choose a root note and a chord type to see it on piano and guitar.
  2. 2Press Play to hear it as a block chord, or Arpeggio to hear the notes one at a time.
  3. 3Tap any guitar diagram to hear that exact voicing strummed.
  4. 4Switch to 'Name my notes' and click keys to identify a chord you already have.
Key features
  • Seventeen chord types from simple triads to ninths, in all twelve keys
  • Up to five playable guitar voicings per chord, with barres and muted strings marked
  • Piano keyboard view with every chord tone highlighted
  • Reverse lookup: click notes and get the chord name
  • Interval breakdown so you can see how the chord is built
  • The seven diatonic chords of each key, one click away

Frequently asked questions

How are the guitar shapes generated?
The standard open and barre shapes are built in, and anything else is worked out by searching every fingering within a four-fret span that sounds all the chord tones, then ranking them by how easy they are to play. Shapes that need more than four fingers or an impossible barre are discarded.
Why do some chords show fewer than five shapes?
Denser chords like ninths need five different notes, and on six strings within a four-fret reach there are only so many ways to fit them all while keeping the sounding strings next to each other. The tool shows what is genuinely playable rather than padding the list.
What does the number next to a diagram mean?
It is the fret the shape starts on. When the shape sits at the nut you will see a thick bar across the top and the word Open instead.
Why does one set of notes give several chord names?
Some chords are genuinely ambiguous. A diminished seventh, for example, is built from four equally spaced notes, so any of them can be heard as the root. Which name is right depends on the key and what comes next.
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Full guide

How Chords Work: Triads, Sevenths and Why Progressions Feel Right

How chords are built from scales, what makes a chord major or minor, why some progressions sound resolved, and how to use them.

Building triadsSevenths & extensionsProgressions

Related Articles & Guides

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