Piano chord finder
Choose a root and a type of chord to see where its notes are, how it’s spelled, and how it looks on the staff. Switch to Name a chord for the reverse: click or play some keys, and the finder names the chord they make.
How chords are built
A chord starts with its root note, which is the note it’s named after. For a major chord, you add the note four half steps above the root (the major third) and the one seven half steps above it (the perfect fifth), so C major is C, E, G. A minor chord lowers the third by a half step, giving C, E♭, G. The finder shows these as numbers: 1 3 5 for a major chord and 1 ♭3 5 for a minor one.
A seventh chord adds a fourth note. In a plain G7 that note sits a half step lower than in a major seventh chord like Cmaj7, and you can tell the difference right away by listening. Sus chords replace the third with the second or the fourth, which makes them sound open and a bit unresolved. Diminished and augmented chords lower or raise the fifth by one half step.
Inversions
An inversion shifts the same notes around, putting a different one at the bottom. In C major, first inversion puts E at the bottom (E G C), and second inversion puts G there (G C E). Pianists use inversions so their hand doesn’t have to jump between chords. Chord charts often write the lowest note after a slash when it isn’t the root; C/E, for instance, means a C chord with E as the lowest note, and Name a chord writes it the same way.