Find the name of a piano chord
Press notes on a MIDI keyboard, click the on-screen piano on Mac, or tap the keys on iPad and iPhone. Instinctive shows possible chord names in real time.
See the harmony inside what you play.
Real-time chord and interval insight for musicians who want to understand the music beneath their fingers, rather than simply name it.
- Real-time MIDI
- Mac, iPad & iPhone
- Private by design
The idea
One musical question. Three ways to explore it.
Each app begins with the notes you play and makes their relationships visible. Choose the immediacy of iPad and iPhone, a focused Mac workspace, or a free first look with MIDI Mirror.
In plain language
Play some notes. See what chord you are playing.
If you play piano or keyboard and find a group of notes that sounds good, the app can tell you the name of the chord. The answer appears as you play, so you do not need to stop and search through a chord book or work it out first.
Learn chords while you practise
See the notes you are holding, the chord they make, and how they look on a piano and musical staff. This is useful when learning keyboard or checking what you played.
Go further when you are ready
Start with the chord name. When you want more detail, you can look at the notes inside it, different names for the same notes, inversions, and how the chord relates to a selected key.
Use it for lessons and creative work
The live display can help during piano lessons, practice, songwriting, rehearsals, music production, streaming, and tutorial videos.
The apps
Built around the way you work.
Three focused experiences, sharing the same goal: clearer harmony in the moment.
iPad & iPhone · iOS 15+
Intervals and Chords
Harmony that goes wherever your music does.
A direct, portable way to see the chords, notation, intervals, and key relationships you are playing. Set it beside your keyboard for practice, lessons, writing, or a quick theory check without leaving your instrument.
- Immediate chord recognition from MIDI or the on-screen keyboard
- Clear interval mapping from each note back to the chord
- Key-aware notation, scale degrees, inversions, and rootless voicings
Mac · macOS 11+
Instinctive Chords
A focused desktop workspace for going deeper.
Give harmony more room. Instinctive Chords brings notation, chord interpretations, interval relationships, and tonal context into a dedicated Mac workspace designed for longer practice, analysis, and writing sessions.
- Connect a MIDI keyboard or play directly on screen
- Explore alternate names, inversions, omitted tones, and rootless chords
- Choose a major key or work key-free with preferred notation
Mac · Free
MIDI Mirror
Start simple. See what your keyboard is saying.
MIDI Mirror turns your performance into a clean, customisable visual display. See notes and recognised chords as you play, open the Chord Guide for a useful explanation, and shape the display for practice, teaching, streaming, or video.
- Free real-time note and chord display
- Chord Guide with explanations and alternative interpretations
- Extensive colour, keyboard, font, and layout controls
When you are ready for notation, interval maps, and deeper voicing analysis, the Instinctive Chords apps take the same idea further.
Download free for Mac
What becomes visible
Theory connected to the keys.
Chord recognition
See possible chord names update as the held notes change.
Interval structure
Understand the role each played note has inside the chord.
Tonal context
Choose a key to see scale degrees and what falls outside it.
Voicing awareness
Explore inversions, incomplete chords, and rootless possibilities.
Flexible note input
Play with the setup already in front of you.
Every app supports more than a connected MIDI keyboard. On Mac, notes can also be played from the on-screen keyboard with a mouse or trackpad. On iPad and iPhone, the interface is designed for direct touch. Each version uses the input methods that make sense for its device, so exploring a chord never depends on having external MIDI hardware connected.
See them in motion
From played note to visible harmony.
Intervals and Chords
See chord recognition, notation, intervals, and the on-screen keyboard working together.
MIDI Mirror
A flexible visual companion for your MIDI keyboard, lessons, and creative work.
Private by design
Your playing stays yours.
The apps process MIDI and musical input on your device. There are no accounts, advertising SDKs, or app analytics, and Instinctive does not receive your musical input.