Free interactive tool
Piano Chord Finder
Pick a root and quality — the keyboard lights the notes and plays the sound.
Build a chord and hear why it works
Pick a root and a quality. The keyboard lights the formula in semitones, and Play lets your ears verify it.
A chord is a recipe measured in semitones. The same shape slid anywhere along the keyboard keeps its character — that is why progressions transpose.
- Build C major, then A minor — they share two notes. Find them.
- Play major and minor on the same root and put the difference into words.
- Move one quality up semitone by semitone and listen to what stays the same.
A chord is a recipe measured in semitones: major stacks 4 then 3, minor flips it to 3 then 4, and sevenths add a fourth note on top. The keyboard lights each chord tone with its role — root, third, fifth, seventh.
Because the recipe is fixed, the same shape works from any root: that is why progressions transpose, and why learning twelve chords is really learning one pattern twelve times.
What makes a chord minor?
One semitone: the third sits 3 semitones above the root instead of 4.
Which chords should a beginner learn first?
C, G, Am, F covers an enormous amount of popular music — this tool shows why they share notes.