Chord Cosmos: build chord progressions and hear them

Harmony by ear, not by table

Harmony is usually taught as a list of rules: which degrees go with which, which cadence resolves where. That works for passing an exam and less well for writing, because what decides whether a progression moves you isn't that it follows the rule — it's how the step from one chord to the next sounds.

Chord Cosmos reverses the order. The chords sit in a ring where those sharing notes — and therefore sounding natural in sequence — end up near each other. You place chords on the track, loop it, and decide by ear. You end up recognising why certain combinations work before you know what they're called.

Switching instrument isn't decoration: the same progression occupies a different region of the spectrum depending on what plays it, and that changes what room is left for everything else. A chord on piano fills the mids; the same chord on a pad spreads out and competes with the vocal. Switching while it loops is the fastest way to notice.

How to use it, step by step

  1. 1.Tap any note on the ring to pick a chord. Chords sharing notes sit near each other, so moving to a neighbour almost always sounds natural.
  2. 2.The chords you pick stack up in the progression bar below. You can reorder them by dragging, and remove whichever doesn't fit.
  3. 3.With two chords or more, hit Play to hear the progression loop. Adjust the tempo: the same sequence at 70 and at 120 BPM doesn't tell the same story.
  4. 4.Change instrument without stopping the loop. It's the tool's most useful exercise: hearing how the same progression occupies a different part of the spectrum depending on what plays it.
  5. 5.When you like it, export. What you get is a progression you can reproduce in your DAW, not a file that replaces your session.

What the tool gives you

The harmonic ring
The layout isn't alphabetical or by key: chords sharing notes sit close together. That turns «what can come next?» into «what's next to me?», a question with an audible answer.
Instruments
Piano, pad and other available timbres. Switching between them with the loop running is what teaches that harmony and mixing are the same problem seen from two places.
Tempo and beats per chord
You control how many beats each chord lasts and how fast the progression runs. Lengthening one chord and shortening the next changes the character more than swapping one for another.
Export
The progression leaves here so you can rebuild it wherever you produce. The tool exists to decide, not to deliver the finished arrangement.

Four ways to get more out of it

  • Start with two chords and stay there a while. Most popular music lives in two or three; adding more rarely fixes a progression that doesn't work.
  • Try the same progression starting on a different chord. The order changes what feels like «home», and that decides the whole feeling of the piece.
  • Loop it while you do something else for a minute. What still appeals when you stop paying attention is what survives in a song.
  • When you find something that works, switch it to a pad and watch what happens to the mids. That's the moment a harmony decision becomes a mixing decision.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need music theory?

No. The ring places chords so that neighbours sound good in sequence, so you can build progressions that work without knowing their names. The name comes later, if you're interested.

Is it free? Do I need an account?

Free and no sign-up, in the browser. There's no paid tier in this tool: it's an exploration space, not a game with progression.

Can I export what I write?

Yes. The idea is that you take the progression to your DAW; what's trained here is the decision, and the real arrangement happens where you produce.

What does harmony have to do with mixing?

More than it seems. The same progression on piano occupies the mids and on a pad spreads until it competes with the vocal. Many problems people attack with EQ are really arrangement problems.

Where to go next

That relationship between timbre and available space governs an entire mix, and it's explained band by band — each zone playable — in the frequency ranges guide. As a reference to compare against by ear, there's the online piano. And if what you're after is chords arriving in tune to the mix, the tuning guide.