Guitar Chord & Scale Finder

A great interactive tool for exploring the note positions and intervals for chords and scales on the guitar fretboard, with added Midi sound support. Just click on a chord type (e.g. C major) or scale (e.g. C minor pentatonic) to get started. Full help is provided below.

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How to use the Chord & Scale Finder

There are seven sections in the tool, each of which control what you can see and hear:

Display

Here you can select the tuning that you want to use. The default is standard tuning (EADGBE), but there is also support for various alternate tunings. Just select from the drop down-list.

The Notes and Intervals options allow you to select whether you want to see the note names (e.g. C, E, G) or the interval numbers (e.g. 1,3,5) on the fretboard diagram.

The fretboard diagram displays for right-handed guitarists by default, but if you're a leftie then just select the "Left-handed" option. [top]

Chords & Scales

These lists control the information that is displayed in the fretboard diagram and the "Details" section, and what you hear if you play the Midi sounds. For example:

To see the notes for a D major chord, just select "D" from the left chord list and "major" from the adjoining list.

To see the notes for a G minor pentatonic scale, select "D" from teh left chord list and "Pentatonic minor" from the Scale list.

In each case the results will be show in the "Fretboard Diagram" and the "Details" section as below. [top]

Fretboard Diagram

This diagram shows the fretboard of the guitar covering 12 frets, the six strings and the note/interval information according to the chord or scale selected. The blue circles represent the root notes of the chord or scale and the black circles represent the other notes of the chord or scale.

You can also use the fretboard to find the name of a chord if you already know what the fingering of it is. For example, if you click the "x" above the 5th and the 1st frets (turning the "x" into a circle (open string) and click on the 2nd fret on strings 3,4 and 5 then the "Detail" panel will show you what the name of this chord is (A major in this case). [top]

Details

This section show the name of the chord or scale, the notes that are used and what the intervals of the notes are. [top]

Scope Section

You can use this to restrict the area of the fretboard that you want to see. For example, if you only want to see notes from the 3rd to the 5th frets then set "Scope fret position" to 3 and set "Set size of scope" to 3. On the fretboard diagram you will now see two bars, at frets 3 and 5, and only the notes between these bars will be highlighted. [top]

Display Control

You can use the "Show all notes" button to illustrate all of the notes on the fretboard. The "Reset" button can be used to clear all previous selections and return you to an empoty fretboard. [top]

Midi Playback

Using the controls here you can hear the notes that are listed in the "Details" section for your current chord or scale selection. You can hear the notes played at the same time or played in sequence (tip: don't play the notes of a scale at the same time, its probably not what you want to hear...).

To get all the notes played at the same time make sure the "arpeggio" value is set to 0ms (using the slider). To get the notes played in sequence just increase the "arpeggio" value to suite your taste. You can have the sound played on a loop by selecting the "Loop chord" option. [top]