How Chord Draft turns words into playable chords.

Step 1

Read the input as a feeling, not a query.

You type a lyric line, a hook, a mood, or a story. Chord Draft treats that text as the emotional shape of a song section — not a search query — and uses it to choose a key center and harmonic direction. A specific, emotionally loaded line "the last summer before everything changed" gives a more directional output than a flat prompt "happy song".

Step 2

Pick a generation style.

Three options. Balanced stays close to familiar songwriting harmony — useful when the lyric needs a familiar shape. Adventurous adds tasteful substitutions and inversions. Experimental uses a higher-capacity model that takes more harmonic risk and can take longer. They are designed to avoid random chord lists and favor a single key center unless the lyric clearly asks for a modulation.

Step 3

Constrain the output to something playable.

The model returns a 4-chord loop in a single key with voicings a songwriter can play in Studio. Chord Draft is designed to avoid unplayable shapes, dense jazz voicings, or theory exercises that a writer cannot react to. The loop is the first sound of a song section — verse, chorus, or bridge — that you can immediately extend.

Step 4

Hand off to Studio.

Chord Draft drops the loop into Studio — a live in-browser piano workspace where you can play, transpose, change voicings, replace any chord, and continue the song. Nothing is saved server-side; the jam stays in your browser. The model gave you a starting place. Taste, melody, and lyric stay yours.

Frequently asked

Method questions

How does Chord Draft pick chords?

Chord Draft sends your lyric, hook, or mood to an AI model that proposes a playable 4-chord loop. The output is constrained to chords a songwriter can actually play and edit, not random or unplayable voicings.

What generation styles does Chord Draft offer?

Three: balanced (familiar harmony), adventurous (slightly unexpected substitutions), and experimental (more harmonic risk). Balanced and adventurous are usually faster; experimental can take longer.

Why a 4-chord loop?

Many song sections can start from a strong 4-chord foundation. Starting there gives you a writable, hummable base. Studio lets you extend, replace, or add sections from that loop.

Does Chord Draft generate melodies or lyrics?

No. Chord Draft only generates chords. Melody and lyrics stay yours — the tool is built around the assumption that taste and lyric are the songwriter's job, not the model's.

Why not use a generic LLM for this?

A generic LLM can output chord names, but that output may not be playable, coherent in key, or shaped for songwriting. Chord Draft is designed to constrain the result to a key, voicing, and structure that a songwriter can open in Studio and play.

Can the model be wrong?

Yes — AI output can be wrong. Chord Draft's job is to give you a fast first sound to react to. If the loop misses, regenerate or edit it in Studio. The terms of service note that AI output should be reviewed before use.