Free Music Tools
Three free tools for working chords out: an interactive circle of fifths, a labelled virtual piano, and a chord finder covering every chord with its notes, playback and inversions. Nothing to install, no sign-up.
Guides
Walkthroughs for each tool, and the chord theory behind them. If you would rather start from a whole progression than a single chord, the chord progression generator writes one from a description and plays it back.
Using the tools
- Chord Finder: Look Up Any Chord and Hear It Three different tools call themselves a chord finder. Which one you actually need, and how to look a chord up here.
- Virtual Piano Chords: Play Them Online Build each shape on the labelled keyboard, highlight a scale to see which chords fit, and hear the whole chord.
- How to Generate a Chord Progression from a Text Prompt Write prompts by key, genre, mood and tempo, then hear, edit and export the progression.
Chords and what they are made of
- What Is a Chord? Notes, Types and How to Read Them How triads and 7ths are built, major against minor, and how to read any chord name.
- 7th Chords: Maj7, m7 and Dominant 7 Explained A triad plus one note, and that note decides everything. All three qualities in every key.
- Sus Chords: What Sus2 and Sus4 Actually Do Swap the third for a 2nd or 4th, hear how each one resolves, and get the sus chords in all twelve keys.
- Add9 Chords: What Add9 Means and How to Play Them Keep the third, stack the 9th on top, and hear why Cadd9 turns up everywhere.
Progressions and songwriting
- What Is a Chord Progression? Roman numeral notation and how chord combinations carry emotion.
- 6 Time-Tested Chord Progressions, bVII and bVI Explained Six progressions that have worked for decades, with a player for each.
- Sad Chord Progressions: 12 Grouped by Mood Twelve progressions grouped by the kind of sad they create, each playable in the browser.
- House Chord Progressions: 10 That Actually Sound Like House The sevenths, voicings and off-beat rhythm that make a loop sound like house and not pop.
- How to Identify Chords by Ear, Step by Step A repeatable five-step test: bass note first, then major or minor, then listen for a fourth note.
- Understanding the Basics of Song Structure Intros, verses, choruses, bridges and outros, and where a progression sits in each.