Chordle
Wordle with chords: spell the day's four-note chord in four tries.
Every day: One four-note seventh chord a day, the same for everyone: you have four tries to spell it note by note, with Wordle-style colours on each note. New puzzle: Midnight in your local time (the game counts days from a fixed start date on your device's clock).
Chordle is a daily music theory puzzle: the hidden answer is a four-note seventh chord, and you have four tries to enter it. Each note you guess turns green, yellow or gray, and you can hear every chord you play. It was made by music educator Nate May for the online music school Synthase.
About Chordle
Chordle takes the Wordle grid and swaps letters for notes. The answer each day is a seventh chord written as four notes from bottom to top, and you have four rows to find it. It was made by music educator Nate May for Synthase, an online music school, and the game links to the school's lessons and newsletter.
The pool of answers is limited to the diatonic seventh chords: dominant seventh, minor seventh, half-diminished seventh and major seventh. Chords can appear in any inversion, but they are always in close position, so all four notes fit inside an octave. Every row you enter has to be one of these allowed chords, which means each guess is itself a real chord and you cannot just test random notes.
After each guess the notes are coloured. Green is the right note in the right column, yellow is a note that is in the chord but in another position, and gray is a note that is not in the chord at all. Because inversions count, a guess with all the right notes in the wrong order is not a win: you need the correct inversion too. With sound on, each chord plays as you enter it, so you can also solve by ear.
Notes are entered with your computer keyboard or the on-screen Keyring. Settings add high-contrast colours, interval lines and a bass note arrow to help you read the chords. When the day is done you get a share grid and a short note about where the chord appears in music.
How to play Chordle
- Open Chordle and turn your sound on to hear each chord you enter.
- Enter four notes from bottom to top using your keyboard or the on-screen Keyring; the row must form an allowed seventh chord.
- Read the colours: green is the right note in the right column, yellow is in the chord but elsewhere, gray is not in the chord.
- Use the clues to adjust the chord quality and inversion, and find the exact chord within four tries.
- Share your result and come back the next day for a new chord.
Tips
- Start with a chord whose notes cover different pitch classes from common answers, so the colours rule out as much as possible.
- Remember only four chord types are allowed: once you know two notes, work out which qualities and inversions could contain them.
- A yellow note tells you the inversion is off, so try rotating the same notes before changing them.
- Turn on interval lines in settings if you think in intervals rather than note names.
Questions
What chords can be the answer?
Only diatonic seventh chords: dominant seventh, minor seventh, half-diminished seventh and major seventh, in close position and in any inversion.
Does the inversion matter?
Yes. A guess has to be in the correct inversion to win, so the right notes in the wrong order are not enough.
When is there a new chord?
Each day. The game counts days from a fixed start date using your device's clock, so the chord changes at your local midnight.
Who made Chordle?
Music educator Nate May, for the online music school Synthase.
Games like Chordle
Daily Jingle
Wordle colours on notes again, but you enter a five-note melody you hear instead of spelling a chord.
Perfect Pitch Puzzle
Name the first six notes of a short tune in six tries, with green and yellow on each note.
Wordle
The word game Chordle copies, with five letters in place of four notes and six rows instead of four.
Beatdle
Rebuild the day's drum beat on a sixteen-step grid, with the same colour feedback on each hit.
Musoplay
An ear-training daily without colours: hear a short melody and play it back on a virtual instrument.
Nerdle
The Wordle colours applied to a hidden maths equation, for players who like rules as well as guesses.
Dialed Sound
Pure pitch: hear five tones and recreate each one on a frequency slider, scored out of 50.
Bandle
Name the day's song as the band comes in one instrument at a time, starting with the drums.