The Keyboard and Enharmonic Spelling

Reading the notes

Each note in the chord gets a labeled circle on the key:

• Blue marks the root — the note the chord is built on and named after.
• Red marks the other chord tones — the third, fifth, seventh, and any extensions.

So at a glance you see not just which keys but what each one is. A guitar voicing shows alongside, so guitarists get a shape, not just a piano picture.

You can also click or drag on the keyboard to play notes yourself — it sounds through the preview synth, so the keyboard doubles as a way to noodle and hear intervals.

Why the spelling matters — E7’s third is G♯

Here’s a detail that separates a real music tool from a calculator: the keyboard spells notes the way a musician would, based on the chord’s function, not just whichever name is shorter.

The same piano key can be called G♯ or A♭ — same pitch, different name. Which is correct depends on context. In an E7 chord, that note is the major third, and the third of E is some kind of G — so it’s G♯, never A♭. The Harmony Wheel knows this. Play an E7 and the third reads G♯; an A7 spells its third C♯; a D7 spells F♯.

This isn’t fussiness. Spelling a chord correctly is how you understand what it’s doing — a G♯ leads your eye and ear differently than an A♭, even though they’re the same key. The wheel’s spelling matches the rule the web Chord Wheel was validated against, so what you see lines up with how the theory is actually written.

What to Practice

• Click the V7 wedge in C (a G7) and read the keyboard — note the chord tones in red, the root in blue.
• Click around to an E7 and check its third: G♯, spelled the way you’d write it.
• Drag along the keyboard to play the chord tones one at a time and hear how the third and seventh give a dominant chord its pull.