Pick a root note in the chord builder, then a quality, then stack any extensions, alterations, or omits you want. The chord name and the voicings below update as you go.
Start with a root
The builder sits at the top of the app, with five rows of buttons: Root, Quality, Extensions, Alterations, and Omit. Until you pick a root, the rest of the rows stay greyed out.
Tap one of the seven letters — C, D, E, F, G, A, B — to set the root. To sharpen or flatten it, tap ♯ or ♭ straight after. For more on accidentals, see How do I switch between sharps and flats?.
The moment you pick a root, Fretscape treats the chord as a major triad by default, so tapping just C already gives you a C major chord with voicings showing below.
Add a quality
Pick from maj, min, dim, aug, sus2, sus4, or 5 (a power chord). Only one quality fits at a time — tapping a new one replaces the previous.
The chord name updates straight away. Tap C then min and the Building row reads = Cm, and the right-hand card shows the C minor card with notes C E♭ G.
Stack extensions, alterations, and omits
You can keep going as deep as you like:
- Extensions — tap 6, 7, maj7, 9, 11, or 13 to add the upper notes. A normal tap brings in the lower extensions too (a 9 includes the 7, and so on). See How do I add a 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th?.
- Alterations — tap ♭5, ♯5, ♭9, ♯9, ♯11, or ♭13 to alter a chord tone or add a colour note. See How do I add altered notes like ♯5 or ♭9?.
- Omit — tap 3 or 5 to leave that note out of the chord. See How do I add or leave a note out of a chord?.
Many Extensions and Alterations buttons also have add and omit modes behind a long-press (or right-click on a computer), and the chips in the Building row can be cycled between modes too — see How do I add or leave a note out of a chord? for the full walkthrough.
Each tap adds a coloured token to the Building row. Tokens are colour-coded by type, so the build is easy to read at a glance.
Reading the Building row
The Building row is your live recipe. From left to right, you see every token in the order you added it, then = <chord name> showing the chord name Fretscape has worked out from your build. The same name appears in the right-hand chord card with the degrees and notes spelt out.
Each token has a small × to remove it on its own. To clear the whole build and start over, tap CLEAR at the end of the row.
When you're done
The voicings list below the builder updates as you go — every recognised chord shows the playable shapes Fretscape has for it, with filters to narrow them down. If you'd rather skip the buttons, you can type the chord name directly into the Type a chord... box below the builder — that's also the only way to enter slash chords like D/F♯, which aren't part of the button set.
For everything else about searching, filtering, and reading the result list, browse the Chord Search category.