ChordMate Tutorial

Basic Search

To find a chord, type its symbol into the Search Box and press Enter. If you don't know the chord symbol, Chord Symbol Lookup can help you find it.

ChordMate will display diagrams of the most common chord voicings. The chord voicing you are looking for will usually be displayed in one of the first few diagrams.

Click on a diagram to play a chord. This may be the easiest way to choose the right voicing when the number of diagrams is not too large. Right-click on the diagram to select how the chord will be played.

The basic search is a good starting point. Sometimes, it may produce too many results or select chord voicings that do not meet your specific criteria. For example, you may want to find a chord in first inversion, while ChordMate's default is to search for chords in root position. In this case, you can use the Rule Editor to tell ChordMate what type of chord voicing you want.

Instruments

ChordMate can imitate the sound of different guitars:

  • Classical
  • Acoustic
  • Electric
  • Jazz

You can set the guitar type using the toolbar. ChordMate knows the typical number of frets each type of guitar has. Depending on your preferences, ChordMate will either default to this number, or use a number you set.

Chord Order

After finding all chord voicings that match your criteria, ChordMate tries to display the best choices first. ChordMate can order the chord voicings in one of three ways:

  • Musical Quality. The music engine uses various advanced music theory heuristics to find the best sounding chords. This is the best choice for an experienced player who is looking for the best sound.
  • Ease of Play. ChordMate tries to find chords that require the least amount of finger stretching. This order is best for beginners.
  • Fret Order. ChordMate groups chords based on the start fret (chords that use open strings are displayed first) and then according to musical quality within each group. This may be the best choice when you want a chord voicing to be close to a particular fret, e.g. to ensure that it flows with the rest of the chord progression.