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Name That Chord

Found a shape you like and no idea what it’s called? Click the notes you’re fretting and it’ll tell you — along with every other name those notes can go by, and exactly how it worked them out.

E A D G B e 3 5 7 9 12 15
String 1, openString 1, fret 1String 1, fret 2String 1, fret 3String 1, fret 4String 1, fret 5String 1, fret 6String 1, fret 7String 1, fret 8String 1, fret 9String 1, fret 10String 1, fret 11String 1, fret 12String 1, fret 13String 1, fret 14String 1, fret 15String 2, openString 2, fret 1String 2, fret 2String 2, fret 3String 2, fret 4String 2, fret 5String 2, fret 6String 2, fret 7String 2, fret 8String 2, fret 9String 2, fret 10String 2, fret 11String 2, fret 12String 2, fret 13String 2, fret 14String 2, fret 15String 3, openString 3, fret 1String 3, fret 2String 3, fret 3String 3, fret 4String 3, fret 5String 3, fret 6String 3, fret 7String 3, fret 8String 3, fret 9String 3, fret 10String 3, fret 11String 3, fret 12String 3, fret 13String 3, fret 14String 3, fret 15String 4, openString 4, fret 1String 4, fret 2String 4, fret 3String 4, fret 4String 4, fret 5String 4, fret 6String 4, fret 7String 4, fret 8String 4, fret 9String 4, fret 10String 4, fret 11String 4, fret 12String 4, fret 13String 4, fret 14String 4, fret 15String 5, openString 5, fret 1String 5, fret 2String 5, fret 3String 5, fret 4String 5, fret 5String 5, fret 6String 5, fret 7String 5, fret 8String 5, fret 9String 5, fret 10String 5, fret 11String 5, fret 12String 5, fret 13String 5, fret 14String 5, fret 15String 6, openString 6, fret 1String 6, fret 2String 6, fret 3String 6, fret 4String 6, fret 5String 6, fret 6String 6, fret 7String 6, fret 8String 6, fret 9String 6, fret 10String 6, fret 11String 6, fret 12String 6, fret 13String 6, fret 14String 6, fret 15

Tap the notes you’re fretting. Each number is that note’s distance in semitones above the root, which is marked in red — so tap a different note to hear the chord from there, and tap the red one to take it off.

Try a shape:

Click some notes on the fretboard.

Learn to do this without the tool

The working shown above isn’t a black box — it’s a seven-step method you can do in your head, or on paper at a rehearsal. This is the lesson it comes from.

Reverse engineering voicings: name that chord!

Silver and up

The seven-step method this tool runs, worked through by hand: count the intervals, reduce them to one octave, and match the set against the chord table — rotating until it fits. Systematic, repeatable, and quick once you have it.

Related lessons

  • Intervals: guitar’s secret decoder ring

    Free to watch

    Counting semitones between two notes is the one skill the whole method rests on. Start here.

  • Chord name decoder ring

    Silver and up

    The same ground in the other direction — read a chord name and know its notes before you play it.

  • Creating chord voicings with barre and shell chords

    Free account

    Once you can name a shape, this is how to build your own instead of looking them up.

Learn the fretboard properly

Fret Science teaches the guitar neck as something you understand rather than something you memorise — so you can find what you need anywhere on it. Membership unlocks the full courses and their handouts, including the lesson above, plus the rest of the tools.

Get access on Patreon