# HOW TO FIND THE CHORDS OF ANY SONG. follow the bass, trust your ear > How to find the chords of a song: find the key, follow the bass, test major or minor, then check your chart against the record with AI YouTube to Chords. Source: https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-find-chords-of-a-song Start here · 02 of 06 - Any instrument - Beginner - 8 min read - Updated Oct 2026 - Chord Lens Team The short answer To find the chords of a song, first find its key, which narrows the likely chords to about six. Then loop each section, follow the bass line, and write down the note wherever it changes. Try the major and minor chord on each note and keep the one that matches the record. 01 / 07 · BASICS ## A chord is a bass note and a colour. A chord is a few notes played together. To name one you need two things: its root, the note it is built on, and its quality, the colour that sits on top. G major and G minor share a root. One sounds bright and open, the other darker. Most of the chords in a pop, rock, folk or worship song are plain major or minor chords, so most of the time those two answers are all you need. The root is the part you can hear most easily, because the bass usually plays it. When the bass player moves to a new note on the first beat of a bar, the chord has very likely changed, and that new note is very likely its name. That one habit, following the bass, does most of the work of finding chords. The quality you hear by trying. Once you know the root, play the major and the minor chord on it against the record. One of them fits; the other rubs. You don’t need theory for that, just your ear, and it gets quicker every song. 02 / 07 · METHOD ## Find them in six steps. Work one section at a time: the verse, then the chorus, then the bridge. Most songs repeat their sections, so once you have the verse and the chorus you often have most of the song. Steps 3 and 4 are where people get stuck, usually because the song is too fast or the bass is hard to hear under everything else. Slow it down; in the Chord Lens Studio the pitch stays the same at any speed, so your chord still matches. If the bass is buried, split the song into stems and solo the bass. The split runs in your browser on a computer, and Free splits a 2-minute window of the song that you choose. When you’re done, play through the whole section along with the record at full speed. A wrong chord stands out much more clearly in context than on its own. 1. **Find the key** Hum the note the chorus rests on and find it on your instrument. That note’s chord is your home chord. 2. **List the likely chords** Write out the six common chords of that key. Most of the song will come from that list. 3. **Loop one section** Loop the verse or the chorus, and slow it to 0.75× if the changes come too fast. 4. **Follow the bass** Hum along with the bass and find each note where it changes. Write them in order, with a mark for each bar. 5. **Pick major or minor** On each bass note, try the major and the minor chord against the record. Keep the one that fits. 6. **Play it through** Play the whole section with the song at full speed. Fix any chord that rubs, then move to the next section. ![The Chord Lens Studio chord sheet for the demo song Coming Home: guitar shapes for B, E, F♯ and G♯m, the Simplify and Nashville switches, and the line being played highlighted with its chord above the words.](https://chordlens.app/assets/guides/how-to-find-chords-of-a-song/studio-chord-sheet.webp) A shape for each chord Simplify for easy chords The chord on the beat 03 / 07 · KEY ## Six chords cover most songs. A major key has six chords that do nearly all the work. Musicians number them by the scale step they start on: I, ii, iii, IV, V and vi. The I, IV and V are major; the ii, iii and vi are minor. Once you know the key, you know the six chords before you’ve heard any of them. Here are the four you’ll meet most, the I, IV, V and vi, in the keys guitarists and pianists play in most: **C:** C, F, G, Am. **G:** G, C, D, Em. **D:** D, G, A, Bm. **A:** A, D, E, F♯m. **E:** E, A, B, C♯m. **F:** F, B♭, C, Dm. A huge number of songs use only those four, in different orders: I–V–vi–IV, vi–IV–I–V, I–IV–V. If the bass lands on a note from your list, the chord is almost certainly the one in the list. If it lands somewhere else, you’ve found something more interesting, and the next section helps. Don’t know the key yet? [How to find the key of a song](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-find-the-key-of-a-song) takes you through it in five steps, or [Song Key Finder](https://chordlens.app/song-key-finder) names it from a YouTube link. In a minor key, count from the relative minor: in A minor the common chords are Am, Dm, Em or E, F and G. 04 / 07 · HARD CHORDS ## When the bass says one thing and the chord another. **Slash chords.** Sometimes the bass plays a note that isn’t the chord’s root, often to walk smoothly between two chords. A bass going G, F♯, E under a guitar that holds G then Em gives you G, G/F♯, Em. If the major and minor chord on a bass note both sound wrong, try the chord a third or a fifth above it with that bass note under it. **Sevenths and suspended chords.** If a major chord sounds right but slightly plain, try adding the seventh: G7 has a bluesy pull towards C, Gmaj7 sounds soft and jazzy. A chord that seems to hang, then settle, is often a sus4 resolving to the plain chord. These are colours on top of a root you already have, so get the root right first. **Chords from outside the key.** Songs borrow. A song in C might use a B♭, or an E major that pulls to Am. When a bass note isn’t on your list, trust the bass and try both qualities as usual. One out-of-key chord doesn’t mean you have the key wrong. **Changes that don’t sit on the beat.** Some chords arrive half a beat early, pushed ahead of the bar. Slow the bar down and listen for exactly where the bass moves. That’s where the chord changes, wherever the bar line is. 05 / 07 · CHECK ## Get a first draft, then check it by ear. Working chords out by ear is the best training there is, and it’s worth doing often. When you want the chords of a song quickly, or want to check the chart you just wrote, [AI YouTube to Chords](https://chordlens.app/youtube-to-chords) does the first draft. Paste a YouTube link into the Studio and Chord Lens listens to the recording, works the chords out and plays them in time with the song, the chord on the beat lit up and the words underneath where the song has lyrics. It names sevenths, suspended and added-note chords as it hears them, and shows the shape for guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin or piano. Turn on Simplify to read the plain chord under a busy one. Have the song as a file instead? The [AI Chord Finder](https://chordlens.app/chord-finder) takes MP3, WAV and M4A the same way. Treat the chart as a draft you check by ear, the way you’d check your own. It is right on most songs with a clear band and steady changes; dense jazz voicings, heavy distortion or a muddy live recording can blur a chord. When one sounds off, use the method above: loop the bar, slow it, solo the bass, and let your ear settle it. Then play it. [Change Song Key](https://chordlens.app/change-song-key) moves the whole song, chords and all, into a key that suits your voice or your hands, and [Slow Down Songs](https://chordlens.app/slow-down-songs) lets you learn the changes at a speed you can manage. 06 / 07 · Do it in one click ## AI YouTube to Chords Paste a YouTube link and get the chords in time with the song, with a shape for your instrument. [Open AI YouTube to Chords](https://chordlens.app/youtube-to-chords) [Open the Studio](https://chordlens.app/studio) 07 / 07 · Quick answers ## Quick answers. the short answers ### Still stuck? Open the Studio and send us a note with Feedback in its sidebar. A person reads every one. [Send feedback](https://chordlens.app/studio?feedback) ### What’s the easiest way to find the chords of a song? Find the key, then follow the bass. The bass usually plays each chord’s root, and the key tells you which six chords are likely. Try major and minor on each bass note and keep the one that fits. ### How do I know if a chord is major or minor? Play both against the record. Major sounds bright and settled, minor darker. The wrong one rubs against the song; the right one disappears into it. ### What if I can’t hear the bass? Slow the song down, use headphones, or split it into stems and solo the bass. In the Chord Lens Studio splitting needs a computer, and Free splits a 2-minute window of each song. ### Can I get chords from a YouTube video? Yes. Paste the link into the Chord Lens Studio, or open the video with the Chrome extension and click Chords. The chords play in time with the song. ### Are AI chord charts accurate? Close on most pop, rock, folk and worship songs with a clear band. Dense jazz voicings, distortion or a muddy live take can blur a chord, so check it by ear. ### Do I need to know music theory? No. Knowing a key’s six common chords saves time, and this guide lists them, but your ear does the real work. ### How do I find the chords of a song I have as a file? Drop the MP3, WAV or M4A into the Chord Lens Studio after signing in. The AI Chord Finder writes its chords in time, with the key and tempo. ## Keep going [Previous in Start here **01** Learn songs by ear](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-learn-songs-by-ear) [Next in Start here **03** Find the key](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-find-the-key-of-a-song) ### Related guides - [Chords and keys · Any instrument Chord progressions 8 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/common-chord-progressions) - [Chords and keys · Any instrument Nashville numbers 8 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/nashville-number-system) - [Start here · Any instrument Learn songs by ear 8 min](https://chordlens.app/guides/how-to-learn-songs-by-ear)