Guitar Chord Builder
Most guitarists learn chords the wrong way round. You memorise a shape, you’re told it’s “G7,” and you move on — with no idea what’s actually inside it or why it sounds the way it does. Learn a few hundred shapes that way and you’ve got a big vocabulary and no grammar.
This tool flips it. Pick any root and any chord type, and it shows you exactly what the chord is made of — the intervals, which notes are essential, which give it its colour, and which you can drop — then maps the whole thing across the fretboard. Once you can see a chord as a handful of intervals instead of a fixed grip, you stop memorising and start understanding.
It’s free, there’s nothing to install, and it works on your phone next to the guitar.
Chords from the Top
You can see every chord tone on the neck now. The next question is which one you put on top — because that’s the note your listener actually tracks, and almost nobody chooses it deliberately. Nine chapters, from triads to voice leading. Not a chord dictionary.
How to use it
Choose a root note, pick a chord family (major, minor, dominant and so on), then the specific chord. The builder reveals the tones one at a time so you see the chord assembled from the ground up — root, third, fifth, then the extensions. Tap any tone to read what it does and why it’s there. Watch where each note falls on the neck and you’ll start recognising the same intervals in chords you already play.
What’s actually in a chord
Every chord is just a stack of intervals measured from its root. A major triad is root, major third, perfect fifth. Add a flat seventh and it’s a dominant. The “colour” notes — ninths, elevenths, thirteenths — are what separate a plain chord from a rich one, and the essential notes are the few you can never drop without losing the chord’s identity. Seeing that structure laid out is the difference between playing chords and understanding them.
Who it’s for
Players who can fret plenty of chords but have never been shown what’s inside them. Anyone moving from open chords and barre shapes into sevenths, extensions and jazz voicings. Guitarists who want to build chords by ear and by logic instead of looking them up.
This tool shows you what a chord is made of. Hacking the CAGED System: Diatonic Harmony shows you how every chord in a key fits together — so you can build progressions, not just chords.
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