Message for visitors on Mobile or small tablet. The guitar app on this page is currently a mobile demo. Enjoy the full app on a larger screen.

Guitar Chords

Guitar Chords are a group of at least 3 notes played together, this means three different notes, i.e. notes with 3 different pitches. If, for example, you select an E major chord on the guitar chord generator on this page, you can see the 3 notes E, B and G# (Ab) make up this chord. Some notes can be expressed as either sharp or flat (enharmonic spelling), the notes sound just the same but the naming of them is decided by which key the song is in. You can find out more about this in our music theory section.

The Guitar Chord Book is intended to be as intuitive to use as possible, but we also have instructions below! also see the frequently asked questions page link on the right. Members can post and answer questions in the forum.

Using the Guitar Chord Book

The chord book will load an E major chord to start you off. Everytime you click on the Root or Type it will load a new selection of guitar chords (inversion or voicings) that fit the selected Root+Type combination. The Roots show the available root keys from C upwards and the types show a variety of the most common chord types.

More Chords, Inversion and Voicings

When you have selected a guitar chord root and type, the more link will appear and this will show more chords which may be different voicings or inversions of the selected chord and in different places on the fretboard.

Acoustic or Electric Guitar

To select between our default acoustic and electric guitars, click the "Settings" link on the right.

Left or Right Handed

You can switch between right and left handed also by clicking the "Settings" link on the right.

Guitar Volume

The master volume for all app pages is also available from the Settings menu.

Strumming or Picking the Guitar

There are two available modes for playing the guitar; strum or pick. In Strum mode you will here the notes played back quickly one after another like when using a plectrum and they will stop after the guitar chord is complete, in pick mode they will keep going until you tell it to stop. This is also true when using the MyChords panel. You can toggle between these two modes using the button at the top of the guitar chords application.

Fret Selector

When you select a chord from the Root and Type panels this will be automatically set to the ideal fret for displaying this chord. You can though adjust this yourself and you can make this go to maximum of 10th fret.

Capo

Just like a real guitar you can put a Capo on the strings to change the chord or raise the key of the chord. You can toggle the capo on and off using the button at the top of the guitar chord application.

Finger Markers

The finger markers can be dragged onto the guitar to make a chord.

Chord Lookup / Chord Finder

If you alter the displayed chord on the guitar the lookup symbol will appear and you can try to find the name of this chord.

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