Chord Lens
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Chord Lensfor YouTube

Chords, lyrics and stems
on any YouTube video

Real chord shapes, synced to the music, with the words underneath. Split the stems, move it into your key, slow it down.

  • Guitar · Uke · Mandolin · Piano
  • Lyrics & chord sheet
  • Stem splitter
  • Change key
  • Slow it down
  • Loop sections
Add to Chrome — it’s free See how it works
  • Free
  • No account needed
  • No ads

A demo of the Chord Lens panel over a YouTube video. It shows the song's key and tempo, and a row of the song's chords that moves along with it, with the line being sung underneath. The chords appear first as names alone, then as the shape to play each one, on each instrument in turn.

Analysis runs on our server, not your laptop Key and tempo shift live in your browser The extension sends the video ID, never your audio

What you get

Everything you need to play along, on one screen

Built by someone who got tired of pausing the video, scrolling a comment thread, and hoping the tab was right.

Four instruments New

Guitar, ukulele, mandolin or piano: pick what is in your hands, and every chord in the song is drawn for it. Or switch the diagrams off and read the names.

Mute or solo any instrument New

The song splits into six parts on your own device: vocals, drums, bass, piano, guitar and the rest. Mute the vocals and sing it, or solo the bass to learn the line. Needs a browser and GPU with WebGPU.

Loop the hard part New

Drag across the bars you are working on in the Stems mixer and they play round until you have them, snapped to the beat. Save up to five loops a video.

Sing it in your key

The song is in D♭ and you sing it in A. Press minus. The recording moves to the new key, not just the letters on screen, and the tempo stays exactly where it was.

Slow it down

Take the solo to three-quarter speed with the pitch left where the band put it. The readout is the tempo you are hearing, and the chart stays locked to the video beat for beat.

A metronome on the song’s beat New

A click built from the same beat grid the chart follows, accenting each downbeat, at half, straight or double time. Off until you switch it on.

Words and sections Beta

Every chord over the syllable it lands on, the line being sung lit as it comes round, and intro, verse and chorus marked where they change. Where a song has no words yet, ask for them and they are there next time.

The whole song, where you want it

The sheet opens in its own window, beside the video, or in Chrome’s side panel. The beat lights up as it plays, any bar jumps the video there, and Print puts it on paper or in a PDF.

Capo that actually works

Pick any fret from 1 to 12 and every chord name and diagram transposes instantly. It works with the key control, not against it: drop the song to fit your voice and still capo up for easier shapes. Piano plays as written.

Shapes, not letters

One chord. Four instruments.

A chord name is a lookup task; a shape is an instruction. Pick what is in your hands, and every chord in the song is drawn for it.

G
Guitar E A D G B E
G
Ukulele G C E A
G
Mandolin G D A E
G
Piano G B D
  • Switch mid-songThe song keeps playing; only the drawing changes.
  • Set it onceYour instrument opens on every song.
  • Follows the keyChange the key and every shape redraws.
  • Capo for stringsFretted shapes take a capo; piano plays as written.

Vocals · Drums · Bass · Piano · Guitar

Hear the parts.
Not just the song.

Six stems pulled out of any YouTube video, right in the tab. Mute the singer and the band keeps playing. Solo the drums and count yourself in.

  • Vocals off, band on

    Drop the lead, or keep drums and bass only. The groove stays intact.

  • Loop the bar you keep missing

    Mark A and B, then run the same four bars until they land.

  • A click that counts you in

    The metronome follows the song at 143 BPM, half or double time.

Practice controls

Your key. Your speed. The same recording.

A record sits where you cannot sing it and moves faster than you can follow. Both are a button in the chart header now.

Put the song in your key

The record is in E and you sing it in D. Press minus twice: the recording comes down with you, the tempo stays put, and the shapes come down too — the bar chords this song was built on turn into C, B and E minor.

You read the key you have landed in, never a “−2” to work out. Press the key itself to snap back to the record.

Slow it down without the chipmunk

Step the tempo down and play the solo at three-quarter speed, with the pitch left where the band put it. The readout is the tempo you are actually hearing — 107, not the 143 on the record.

A step or two sounds clean; push a dense mix a long way and you will hear it. Your key and speed are remembered per video, so tomorrow the song is still where you left it.

See it running

Three ways to read the same song

Full fretboard shapes while you learn the part, and the whole song in a window of its own — as words with the chords over them, or as a numbered bar grid. Lyrics and sections are in beta: most songs have them, and one without them still gets its full chart.

Diagram mode

The same row, switched to real fretboard shapes — finger numbers, open strings, muted strings, and the fret to start from when the shape moves up the neck.

The words, with the chords on them Beta

Click Sheet and the whole song opens in its own window, beside the video, or in Chrome’s side panel. Each chord sits over the syllable it lands on, the sections are named, and the line being sung is lit and scrolls itself. The Lyrics tab drops the chords for when you are only singing.

The bar grid

Every bar numbered, as many to a row as you like, under the section it belongs to. The beat playing lights up, and clicking a bar jumps the video straight to it. Print puts the chart on paper, or saves it as a PDF.

How it works

Three steps, no setup

The extension needs no account and nothing to configure.

Install Chord Lens

One click from the Chrome Web Store. Nothing to sign up for and nothing to configure afterwards.

Open a song and click Chords

The button sits in the YouTube player. First analysis takes a moment, and the lyrics can land a little after the chords. Every replay after that is instant.

Play along

Move the key until you can sing it, drop the tempo until you can play it, and the chart follows.

Questions

Quick answers

Do I need an account?

Not for the extension. Install it, open a video, click Chords. The studio on this site asks you to sign in with Google, but the extension itself never does.

Does changing the key change what I hear?

Yes, and that is the point. The recording moves to the new key while the tempo stays exactly where it was, so you can sing the song at a pitch that suits you, and the chart names the shapes you are now playing. A step or two sounds clean; push a dense mix a long way and you will hear that it has been processed.

Is that different from a capo?

Yes, and you can use both. A capo changes the shapes your fingers make; the key control changes the sound of the recording. Set the two together and the chart works out what you should be playing.

Can I slow the song down?

Yes. Step the tempo down and the recording slows with the pitch left where the band put it. It moves in the same steps as YouTube's own speed control, because it is the same control, and the chart stays locked to the video at any speed. Your key and tempo are remembered per video.

Does it record my audio or my screen?

No. The extension captures nothing from your browser and uploads none of your audio. It sends our server the YouTube video ID, which the server uses to analyse that video's audio, and a sign-in token only if you choose to sign in. The privacy policy has the details. The key and tempo controls work on the video's sound live in the page as it plays.

Does it show the lyrics too?

Yes, and this part is new and in beta. When a song has lyrics, the line being sung shows under the chord strip, and the sheet window lays the whole song out with each chord over the word it lands on. Lyrics depend on the song: where they can be written for one, a Generate lyrics button appears; where they cannot, the chart still works.

Can I see the whole song at once?

Yes. Click Sheet for the whole song in its own resizable window, in three views: Lead, the words with the chords over them; Lyrics, the words on their own; and Grid, every bar numbered. Key, tempo, capo and Simplify are in that window too. Move it anywhere, including a second monitor.

Guitar only, or other instruments too?

Guitar shapes only for now. Chord names and the sheet work for any instrument, but the diagrams are guitar fingerings.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Chord Lens is free. Server analysis is not, so if it saves you an evening of squinting at comment threads you can buy me a coffee.

One click from watching to playing

Turn every video into a chord chart

You already learn songs on YouTube. Chord Lens puts the chords on the screen — with the shapes, over the words, in your key, at your speed — and lets you keep playing.

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