See it. Hear it. Play it.
Every chord, scale and progression on guitar, piano and ukulele, with sound. Pick a chord below and it plays as it's drawn.
Start here
- Your first eight guitar chords: Em, Am, E, A, D, G, C, Dm, in the order that's easiest on your fingers.
- First piano chords: C, F and G with one hand shape, then the minor chords of C major.
- First ukulele chords: C, Am, F and G, the four-chord loop behind countless songs.
- The circle of fifths: tap a key and hear its three main chords.
- How to read music, then drill treble clef and bass clef notes with a trainer that plays each note.
Chords people look up most
Or the full charts: guitar chords · piano chords · ukulele chords · all 180 chords. Every chord page shows the shape, the notes, the keys the chord belongs to and the progressions that use it.
Scales, keys and progressions
Scales
144 scales and modes, each played up and down on a keyboard and a guitar box at your tempo.
Keys
All 24 major and minor keys with their seven chords, the key signature and the progressions that live there.
Progressions
The 14 progressions that carry most popular music, playable in any key, with a transpose control.
Tools
- Metronome with tap tempo and time signatures.
- Tuners for guitar, ukulele and bass: microphone or reference tones.
- Chord finder: tap the notes, get the chord's name.
- Chord transposer and capo chart.
- Progression builder: make a loop, share it as a link.
- Printable chord charts for guitar, piano and ukulele.
How it works
Nothing on this site is a picture of a chord someone typed in. Each chord, scale and key is computed from its formula, then drawn and played by the same code. A test suite checks every chord's notes and intervals, that every guitar and ukulele shape can be held by one hand, and that the sound's pitch matches the notes lit on the diagram to within a few cents. When the drawing says B, D and F♯, that is what you hear. More about the site.
Questions
What is Hear the Chord?
A free reference where every chord, scale and progression is drawn on guitar, piano or ukulele and played by the same sound engine, so the notes you hear are exactly the ones on the diagram. You can slow any chord down, loop it, and flip guitar diagrams left-handed.
Do I need to sign up or install anything?
No. Everything runs in the browser, on a phone or a laptop. Tap Play once to allow sound; after that every button plays instantly.
Is the sound a recording?
No, it is synthesized note by note from the chord you are looking at: a plucked-string model for guitar and ukulele and an additive model for piano. That is how the site can play all 180 chords in every voicing and key, and why the lit dots always match what you hear.
Where should a complete beginner start?
On guitar, with the first eight chords. On piano, with C, F and G. On ukulele, with C, Am, F and G. When you want to know why chords fit together, try the circle of fifths.
Can I use the chord player on my own site?
Yes. The embeddable chord player is free for teachers and bloggers: copy one line of HTML and it shows and plays any chord on any of the three instruments.
Updated September 2026.