Select a root note and scale type to see all diatonic chords, scale notes, Camelot position, and common progressions — with audio playback.
Diatonic chords are built entirely from notes within a scale. Every major scale produces the same pattern of chord qualities: I (major), ii (minor), iii (minor), IV (major), V (major), vi (minor), vii° (diminished). Minor and modal scales produce different patterns — which gives each scale its distinctive character.
Clicking a chord card plays the chord tones through your browser using the Web Audio API — oscillators tuned to the exact frequencies of each note, stacked as a simple triad or seventh chord. Use this to train your ears and understand how each chord in a scale sounds.
Ready to go further? Visit Cloud Atelier Studio for structured guides on music theory, composition, and ear training — or use the Chord Progression Analyzer to identify the key and function of any progression you encounter.
1. Choose a root note and a scale type.
2. Read the diatonic chords — one on every degree of the scale — with their Roman numerals, plus the scale notes, the key's Camelot position and common progressions.
3. Click any chord card to hear it.
Choose C and Major. The chords are C (I), Dm (ii), Em (iii), F (IV), G (V), Am (vi) and B° (vii°) — the same pattern of major, minor and diminished in every major key. Switch the root to G and the pattern moves with it: G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, F♯°. A progression such as I–V–vi–IV becomes C–G–Am–F in C and G–D–Em–C in G.
What are diatonic chords?
Chords built only from the notes of one scale. Stack every other note of the scale on each
degree — C–E–G, D–F–A and so on in C major — and you get seven triads. They are the chords
that sound at home in the key.
Why is the chord on the seventh degree diminished?
In a major key the triad on degree seven (B–D–F in C major) has a minor third and a
diminished fifth, so it is diminished. It pulls strongly back to the tonic, which is why it
often stands in for the dominant.
How do the chords change in a minor key?
In natural minor the pattern is i, ii°, III, iv, v, VI, VII — A minor gives Am, B°, C, Dm,
Em, F, G. Pick Harmonic Minor to see the raised seventh at work: it turns v into a major V
(E in A minor) for a stronger pull to the tonic.