How does chord name work?

I have been trying to use the chord name section of this site but I cannot get it to work. I can highlight the notes of a chord but then what? I really like this site. It has more useful information than any other site I have seen. This is the only problem I have had.

Hi, welcome to the forums gilcarleton!

The chord name tool works in the manner that you describe. You simply click on the fret for the strings (or the part of the fret board near the end of the guitar for an open string) and it can tell you what chord you would be playing. For example, if you click in the 5th fret for the E, B, and e strings, the 6th fret for the G string, and the 6th frets for the A and D strings, it would tell you that you are playing an A major chord and I believe it also gives yout he breakdowns of the individual notes as well.

It does have its limitations though. It won't always give you a chord name for weird notes. For example if you put in an open E chord and then the E string from an open fret to the first fret, making it an F, it wigs out. I would guess technically that would be an Emajadd9, but it is something that just isn't ever used. My guess is because playing a second and a third together doesn't jive very well and isn't used. I could be wrong here, please correct me if I am wrong. But the tool likely doesn't spit anything out in this case, because it is either a daatbase or a formulaic tool and that part was never added to the tool, so it wouldn't register as a chord.

I hope I helped and did not confuse you and again welcome!

You'd have to make that F# to get your 9th. ;)

@gilcarleton, if you already know what chord you want, try the Guitar Chords Section.

Rock on!

Emajaddmin9?

... and I'm an idiot, hahaha

EMajAddb9
@gilcarleton Welcome here

Got it! Thanks everyone for all the help. I found that I was not clicking on the nut for open strings. After I did that it worked fine. I have a few chords for other arrangements that I know the formation of but I thought I would look them up to see what chords they are. Maybe I shouldn't be so lazy and just count them out.

I really like this site. It has more useful information for everyday playing than any other site I have found.