Piano Chord Finder

Press three or more keys on the keyboard above and the chord finder names what you are holding: the chord symbol, its notes, and whether it is in root position or an inversion. Keys stay down until you press them again, so you can build a chord one note at a time with the mouse. On a MIDI keyboard, just play the chord.

A chord is a set of notes, and the finder looks only at which notes are held, not which octave they are in or how many times they are doubled. C, E and G in any arrangement is a C major chord. The lowest note you are holding decides the inversion: with E on the bottom the same three notes are C major in first inversion, written C/E.

The finder knows fifteen chord qualities on every root:

Some sets of notes have two honest names. C6 and Am7 are the same four notes; the finder reads whichever root is in the bass, which is how a lead sheet would write it. Two notes are an interval, not a chord, and a cluster of neighbouring keys has no chord name at all, so the finder waits for a shape it recognises.

Naming a chord is the first step; the second is being able to play it without looking. Every chord the finder names from the ten common qualities links to its page in the piano chord dictionary, where the same chord is shown on a keyboard in root position and both inversions, each one playable and graded right on the page.

A good way to use the two together:

1. Play a chord you know, such as C major, and watch the finder name it.
2. Move the lowest note up an octave and see the inversion change to C/E, then C/G.
3. Change one note at a time. Lower the E to E♭ and you have C minor; add a B♭ and you have C7.
4. Open the chord's page and play it from the diagram until the shape is in your hands.

If you want to hear chords inside real music, the key pages list the chords that belong to each key, and the sheet music library shows chord names above the staff as you play.

Why does the finder say nothing when I hold two keys?

Two notes make an interval, not a chord. Add a third note and a name appears.

It named my chord with a slash, like G/B. What does that mean?

The chord is G major, but B is the lowest note, so it is in first inversion. The letter after the slash is always the bass note.

Can it identify chords with more than four notes?

It names chords up to four distinct notes (sevenths, add9, sixths). Ninth and thirteenth chords with five or more distinct notes are not named yet.

Does it work with a MIDI keyboard?

Yes. Allow the browser to use MIDI when asked, then play; the keys you hold are shown on the keyboard above and named underneath.