Chord Finder: See the Chords of a Song from an Audio File

How to find the chords of a song from an audio file

Open an mp3, wav, flac, m4a or mp4 file from your computer or phone. The player listens to the whole song first and reads the tempo, the key and the chords. Turn on Chords and a strip of chord names runs along the waveform, with the chord you're on and the next one shown under the transport. Click a block to jump to that spot. Treat the names as a first draft. They're approximate, not a transcription, and the strip is where checking starts, not where it ends. Drag across the waveform to loop the change you're unsure about, then slow it down without changing the pitch. If you want to check by ear, split the song: solo the bass to hear the root of each chord, mute the vocals so the melody stops pulling you toward the wrong note, and solo the piano or guitar to hear how the chord is voiced. Your song isn't uploaded.

Read the strip, then check one change

The strip is a map of the song, not a chart you can hand to a band without listening. Turn Chords on and the names sit on the waveform in the order the song plays them. Under the transport you get the chord you are on and the next one, so you can see the change coming before you hear it. Click a block and the playhead jumps to that spot. That click is why the strip is there: you stop hunting through a three-minute file for the bar where the chorus lifts.

Hold every name as a first draft. The player says the chords are approximate, not a transcription, and that is the right way to use them. A steady verse of plain major and minor chords usually lines up with what you hear. A bar full of passing chords, or a guitarist who slides through a colour note, is where the name goes simple. A seventh can show up as the triad underneath it. When that happens, do not argue with the strip from across the room. Loop the change and listen.

Loop the change and check the root

Drag across the two chords you do not trust. The loop repeats until you clear it. On a phone, Set A at the start of the change and Set B just after the next chord has landed. Slow the loop without moving the pitch. The names stay in the original key while you do this, which is useful: you are hearing the record, and the label on the strip still matches the file you opened.

If the name and your ear disagree, split the song and solo the bass. The root is usually the note the bass sits on at the downbeat, not the note the singer is holding. Mute the vocals if the melody keeps tugging you toward a colour tone. Then solo the piano or the guitar and listen for the voicing: whether the third is low, whether the guitar is playing a shell and leaving the root to the bass. The BPM and key finder is the page for the tempo and the key of the same file, before you start naming changes. The guide is the order to learn the part once those changes make sense.

Write it down, then move it for a singer

Write the names as you confirm them, bar by bar, and mark the ones you still doubt. A chart you checked against the bass is worth more than a strip you trusted on the first pass. If a bridge modulates, the strip may keep the home-key name a bar too long. That is another place to loop, not a place to print.

When a singer needs the song lower, move the pitch in semitones and leave the speed alone. The chord names on the strip do not follow that move. Drop the song two semitones and write each chord two semitones down on paper. Capo players do the sum the other way: the shapes stay, the sounding key moves. Nothing on this page uploads the song. The chords are read from the file on your device, and a split only starts when you ask for one.