Chord Finder — Identify Chord Names from Notes (Piano Keyboard)
Select the notes on a piano keyboard and instantly find the matching chord name (major, minor, 7th, sus4, add9, and more). A free tool for songwriting, ear training, and improvisation.
What Is the Chord Finder?
The Chord Finder automatically works out the chord name that matches whatever notes you click on a piano keyboard. It is useful when you have stumbled on a nice-sounding chord while composing and cannot name it, or when you have figured out the finger shape by ear but still need the chord name.
Where music.practice.chord_progression_generator goes from a key to its chords, this tool works in the opposite direction: from the notes you hear to the chord name. It recognizes not only major and minor triads but also extended chords such as 7ths, 6ths, sus2/sus4, add9, and 9ths.
How to Use the Chord Finder
- Select the notes on the keyboard Click every note that makes up the chord you want to identify.
- Check the result Once you select 3 or more notes, matching chord names are listed automatically.
- Play it back to check by ear Press "Play Selected Notes" to hear the selected notes sounded together.
- Reset if needed Use "Clear" to reset the selection and try another chord.
Tips for getting more out of it
- When more than one chord name is shown, pick the spelling (sharp or flat) that fits your key so the chord reads naturally on a chart.
- To identify a guitar chord shape, reproduce every note that actually rings out (including open strings, but not muted strings) on the keyboard for an accurate result.
- If you see "no common chord matches," check whether an unwanted note slipped into your selection, or consider that you may have built a more complex tension chord.
- To transpose the chord you just found into another key, check music.practice.chord_progression_generator for the diatonic chords of that key.
Glossary
- Root note
- The note a chord is built from. The first letter in a chord name (the C in Cm7, for example) refers to the root note.
- Chord quality
- The category that describes how a chord sounds — major, minor, diminished, augmented, and so on — determined by the intervals stacked above the root.
- Triad
- The most basic chord shape, made of three notes: the root, the third, and the fifth.
- Seventh chord
- A four-note chord formed by adding a seventh interval to a triad. The type of seventh added (major or minor) determines whether it becomes a maj7, dominant 7, or m7 chord.
- Enharmonic equivalent
- A situation where the exact same notes can be spelled, and therefore named, as more than one chord depending on context. Diminished seventh and augmented chords are especially prone to this because of their symmetrical structure.
- Tension note
- An extra note — a 9th, 11th, or 13th — added on top of a triad or seventh chord. Add9 and 9th chords both contain a tension note.
- Suspended chord
- A chord in which the third — the note that decides whether a chord sounds major or minor — is replaced with a 2nd (sus2) or a 4th (sus4), producing an open, unresolved sound.
Frequently Asked Questions
Side Note — How Chord Symbols Became a Shared Language
The chord symbols we now take for granted — "C," "Am7," and the like — are a surprisingly recent invention. Classical music long relied on either fully notated sheet music or figured bass, a numeric shorthand for a continuo player, neither of which let a musician grasp a chord's quality at a glance the way a single letter does today.
Chord symbols spread through popular music largely out of practical necessity in jazz and band settings. Musicians meeting for the first time needed a way to play together convincingly without spending time studying a fully written-out score. Chord symbols evolved into an efficient shorthand that communicates "what to play right now" without requiring deep knowledge of harmonic theory.
Interestingly, the very same four notes — say, C, Eb, Gb, and A — can be spelled and named as Cdim7, Ebdim7, F#dim7, or Adim7 depending on context. This is because a diminished seventh chord stacks notes at equal intervals (minor thirds throughout), so no matter which note you treat as the root, the result is theoretically valid. Composers and arrangers often exploit this symmetry, using diminished chords as a smooth pivot to slip naturally into a new key mid-song.