Chord Identifier — Name a Chord from its Notes

Click the notes you're playing and the identifier names the chord. It tries every selected note as a possible root, so inversions are recognised too. The reverse of the chord finder.

Building a chord up from a known root instead? Use the chord finder, or explore keys on the circle of fifths.

How it works

Identification works backwards from the notes: reduce them to pitch classes, measure the intervals from each candidate root, and match against known chord shapes.

1. reduce notes to pitch classes (mod 12)
2. for each possible root, measure intervals
3. match the interval set against known chords
4. the root that matches names the chord; others give inversions

Worked example

• C E G → intervals from C are 0 4 7 → C major
• E G C → the same pitch classes → C major, first inversion (C/E)
• C E♭ G♭ → 0 3 6 → C diminished
• C E G B♭ → 0 4 7 10 → C7

In practice

• The bass note changes the name, not the notes. C/E is still a C chord; the slash tells you what is underneath.
• Some sets are genuinely ambiguous. A diminished seventh is symmetrical and has four equally valid roots — context decides, not arithmetic.
• Missing fifths are common in real voicings, so identification has to tolerate incomplete chords.
• Enharmonic spelling matters to notation but not to pitch. A♯ and B♭ are the same key and different notes on a score.

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