🎹 Chord Finder

A chord is three or more notes played at the same time. The note a chord is named after is its root. A major chord adds the note four half steps up and the note seven half steps up: C major is C, E and G, and it sounds happy. A minor chord moves the middle note down one half step: C minor is C, Eb and G, and it sounds sad. A seven chord adds one more note on top, and it sounds as if it wants to move on to another chord: G7 wants to go home to C.

On a piano the chord’s keys are coloured. On a ukulele or a guitar the drawing is a chord box: the lines going down are the strings (the lowest on the left), the lines going across are the frets, a dot is where a finger presses, ○ means play the string open, and × means leave it out. A small number beside the box says which fret it starts on.

Which chords to learn first

On a ukulele, start with C, A minor, F and G7: four shapes that play hundreds of songs, and C and A minor need only one finger. On a guitar, start with E minor, C, G and D. On a piano, C, F and G use only the white keys.

The chords in each key

• C major: C F G G7
• G major: G C D D7
• D major: D G A A7
• A major: A D E E7
• E major: E A B B7
• F major: F Bb C C7
• Bb major: Bb Eb F F7
• Eb major: Eb Ab Bb Bb7
• A minor: Am Dm E E7
• D minor: Dm Gm A A7