Guitar Chord Finder

Select a root note (C, C#, D, etc.) and a chord quality (major, minor, 7, maj7, m7, or sus4). The chord diagram appears showing the fretboard with finger positions marked. Numbers inside the dots indicate which finger to use. An X above a string means don't play that string. An O means play it open.

A chord diagram represents the guitar fretboard viewed from the front. Vertical lines are strings (low E on the left, high E on the right). Horizontal lines are frets. Dots show where to place your fingers. The number inside a dot is the recommended finger (1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinky). When a shape sits higher up the neck, a fret label like "4fr" shows which fret the diagram starts on.

A thick bar across several strings means one finger — almost always the index — presses all of them down at once. Barre chords like F major or Bm are movable: slide the same shape up two frets and you get G major or C#m. If a barre buzzes, roll the index finger slightly onto its bony edge, keep it close behind the fret wire, and check that your thumb sits low on the back of the neck for leverage. Barres feel impossible for a few weeks and then suddenly click — that's normal.

An X above a string means that string shouldn't ring — either skip it with your strumming hand or let a fretting finger rest lightly against it. An O means the string is played open, with no finger on it; open strings are part of the chord, so let them ring clearly. Getting clean X's matters more than it seems: a stray open low E under a C major chord muddies the whole sound.

On six strings you can't always fit every theoretical chord tone, so practical guitar voicings sometimes drop one — nearly always the fifth, because it adds the least color. The open C7 shape, for example, contains C, E, and Bb but no G, and still sounds unmistakably like C7. The notes listed under each diagram are the chord's theoretical tones; the shape shown is the standard practical voicing guitarists actually play.