Yes. Use the Type a chord... box just below the builder buttons. Type a chord name like Am7, Cmaj9, or Bb13♭9, then press Enter. Fretscape reads the name, fills in the builder buttons to match, and shows the voicings below.

What you can type

Fretscape understands the usual chord-symbol shorthand:

• Roots and accidentals — C, D# (or D♯), Eb (or E♭), F#, Bb
• Qualities — maj, min (or m), dim, aug, sus2, sus4, and 5 for a power chord
• Extensions — 6, 7, maj7, 9, 11, 13
• Alterations — b5, #5, b9, #9, #11, b13
• Slash chords for a specific bass note — G/B, D/F#

You can combine these freely — Cm7b5, F#dim7, Bbmaj9#11 all work.

What happens when you press Enter

The buttons in the builder fill in to match what you typed — root, accidental, quality, extensions, alterations, and any omits — and the Building row shows the chord name with = <name> at the end. The voicings underneath load straight after.

If Fretscape has trouble understanding the entered chord name, the builder stays empty and no voicings appear. Fretscape is generous about how you spell a chord — Cm7, Cmin7, and Cminor7 all give you the same chord — but no system catches every possible spelling, so the occasional one can still slip through. Check for typos in the root note, try a shorter form of the same chord, or fall back to the chord builder buttons above the search box — those are guaranteed to spell the chord in a way Fretscape understands.

Slash chords

A slash chord like C/E means "play a C chord with E in the bass". When you type one, Fretscape sets the main chord (C) and then pins the bass note through the filters panel:

• If the bass note is part of the chord — like E in C major — Fretscape sets the Inversions filter to the matching inversion. See What's an inversion and why would I use one? for the background.
• If the bass note isn't part of the chord — like D in C/D — Fretscape sets the Bass Note filter to that note.

Both filters are part of Pro. On Free the main chord still loads, but Fretscape will let you know that pinning the bass note needs Pro — without that filter, your voicings won't be narrowed to the ones with the bass note you asked for.

When typing is faster

Most of the time, typing wins:

• You already know the chord name from a sheet or a song.
• You want a slash chord. Those are hard to build with buttons but easy to type.
• You want a specific enharmonic spelling. Typed input is normalised against your Prefer Sharps / Prefer Flats setting — see How do I switch between sharps and flats? for the detail.

When the builder wins

The builder is more useful when you don't yet know what to call the chord. You can stack tokens by ear, watch the chord name appear at the end of the Building row, and learn the symbol that goes with the sound.