Chord Identifier

Identify a Chord From Its Notes

The chord identifier takes any set of note names — typed like C E G, or picked from the twelve chromatic buttons — and answers with the chord those notes form. Two notes are enough to start; five are handled without blinking. Every answer includes the chord symbol, the full spoken name, and up to three alternate names when the same notes admit more than one reading.

The engine works the way a theory teacher does: it tries each note as the root in turn, measures the intervals to the others, and matches the result against twenty-one chord formulas. Candidates are ranked by exactness, commonness and bass support, so C E G comes back as C Major — not as an exotic inversion of something unrelated. Ranking over guessing is what a chord identifier is for.

Alternate Names and Enharmonic Answers

Music is full of chords that wear two name tags. A C E G is A minor 7 when A anchors the bass and C major 6 when C does. The chord identifier does not pick a side secretly — it shows the ranking and lets the context decide. Each alternate is a real, playable answer, not a consolation prize. Two names, honestly ranked — that is the chord identifier earning trust.

Spelling is respected throughout: enter E♭ G♭ B♭ and the identifier answers in flats, because a chord identifier that renamed your notes would create more confusion than it solves.

Root, Bass and Inversion, Decoded

Every result names the root — the note the chord is built from and named after. On its own a root tells you the chord's home; combined with the intervals it tells you the chord's character. The identifier states both, then goes one step further and marks the inversion when your lowest note is a third, fifth or seventh instead of the root.

This is the detail that turns a chord identifier from a party trick into a study tool: you learn to hear inversions by watching their labels appear as you reorder the same few notes.

Who Is This Chord Identifier For?

Wherever the question is notes in, name out, this chord identifier is the shortest path between them.

• Pianists who found a nice stack of notes and want its name.
• Producers reversing a melody into the chord it implies.
• Students checking answers before theory class.
• Guitarists reading a chart that assumes chords from notation.
• Anyone arguing about what a chord should be called.

From Notes to the Fretboard

Guitarists can jump straight from notes to shapes: the Guitar Chord Identifier takes the same engine onto an interactive fretboard, and the Chord Finder turns any name this tool produces into playable diagrams. Identify the chord here, then go hear it there — the tools are siblings by design, and they agree because they share one matching engine. Try it now: this chord identifier starts answering from two notes upward, needs no account, and never leaves your browser. Here for the name, there for the shape: the chord identifier closes the loop.