Chord Player

Pick a chord to strum it. Build a progression and play it back.

Root

Type

Progression

Tempo 90

Keyboard: Space strums, Enter plays the progression.

What’s going on

Pick a root and a chord type and the fretboard shows where your fingers go: numbers are frets, a ring means play the string open, and × means don’t play it. Strum it and each string is plucked a moment after the last, just as a pick crosses them.

How the guitar sound is made

No recordings are used. Each note starts as a burst of random noise in a short loop exactly one vibration long. Every time round, the loop is gently smoothed, so the noise quickly settles into a ringing tone that fades like a real string. This is the Karplus–Strong algorithm from 1983, one of the first and simplest ways to synthesize a plucked string.

The chords

Familiar open shapes are used where they exist (C, G, Am, D7…). Everything else uses barre shapes: the E shape with the root on the low E string, or the A shape with the root on the A string, whichever sits lower on the neck.

How to use it

Choose a chord with Root and Type; it strums as you choose. Tap the fretboard or press Space to strum again.

Add to progression puts the current chord at the end. Tap a chord in the progression to hear it, × to remove it.

Load a progression picks a famous one, like I–V–vi–IV (a thousand pop songs) or the 12-bar blues.

Play loops the progression. Set the tempo, how many beats each chord lasts, and the strum: down strums, down-up, or one strum per chord.

Sound needs a tap first on phones; check that silent mode is off.

Sharing

Press the share button (top right). It takes a picture of what's on screen and makes a link preview for it. Add a title if you like, then post it to Facebook, copy the link, or send it another way.

Clips: choose a shape (a 9:16 reel or a square) and a length, then Record a clip. The menu buttons hide while it films; press Stop to end early. You can keep playing with the controls while it records. The clip can go on your share page, be saved, or be posted as a Facebook reel.

Each share gets its own page with the picture, the clip if you made one, and a button that reopens this app with your exact settings.

Clips carry the guitar sound. Turn on Start the progression from the top to begin playing as filming starts.

Credits

Plucked-string synthesis: Kevin Karplus and Alex Strong (1983). The first version of this app was adapted from Fazli Sapuan’s electric guitar synth in HTML5.

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Made by Jason Buchheim for odd.place.