# Chord names or sheet music

Each question can be written as a chord symbol or printed on the staff, and chord names can use American, German, jazz or solfège spelling.

## Chord symbol or staff

PianoKitty can ask for a chord by name, as a lead sheet or a songbook does, or with notes on the staff, as a score does. The drill and your answer on the keys stay the same; only the way the question is written changes.

Names are quicker to read: three characters and you can play. The staff takes longer, but it is what the sheet music on your stand looks like.

![The practice screen asking for a chord by its name.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/hero.webp)

![The practice screen with the question printed on a staff instead of written as a chord name.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/staff.webp)

## Four ways to spell a chord

Choose the system you learned, or the one you want to get used to.

- American: C, C♯, Cm7. Most online material and pop songbooks use it.
- German: C, Cis, and H where American notation writes B. This is the standard in Poland, Germany and much of central Europe.
- Jazz (Real Book): C−7, CΔ7, the shorthand printed in fake books.
- Solfège: Do, Ré, Mi, for anyone who learned with movable or fixed do.

![A chord named in German notation.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/german.webp)

![The same chord written in jazz Real Book symbols.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/jazz.webp)

![The same chord written in solfège.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/solfege.webp)

## Short symbol or spelled out

A beginner reading *Cm7* has to decode three things at once. Set the chord-name form to **long** and the app spells the name out in words. This helps in the first weeks, and you can switch back once the short symbols are familiar.

![A chord name written out in full instead of as a symbol.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/long-name.webp)

## Where to set it

You set all of this in [Preferences](https://pianokitty.com/preferences), and it applies everywhere: in practice, in levels and in shared drills.

![The Preferences controls for chord notation and chord-name form.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/preferences.webp)

> Black-key spelling is a separate setting: sharps, flats, random, or *auto*, which follows the key you are in, so in F major you see B♭ rather than A♯. Random prepares you best for real music, where the same black key turns up under both names.

## Settings for reading music

Staff mode has its own settings, and each one makes a different reading exercise from the same chords: the clef (treble, bass, or following the practicing hand), the key signature on or off, whole notes instead of quarters, an octave shift, and the root highlighted in orange until you can find it on your own.

![The Preferences controls for the staff display.](https://pianokitty.com/features/en/chord-notation/staff-options.webp)

## Try a drill

- Try it: [Read triads on the staff](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0&nd=staff&sclef=true&sroot=true): Major and minor, printed with clef and key signature.
- Try it: [German names](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0&nota=german): The same triads with German note names.
- Try it: [Real Book symbols](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=6,7,8&bn=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11&inv=0&nota=jazz): Seventh chords in fake-book symbols.
- Try it: [Flat keys only](https://pianokitty.com/app?subject=chords&ct=0,1&bn=1,3,6,8,10&inv=0&acc=flat): Triads spelled with flats: B♭, E♭, A♭.

Related: [Learn to read notation one chord at a time](https://pianokitty.com/features/notation.md), [Languages and notations](https://pianokitty.com/features/languages.md), [Turn the staff to match the keys](https://pianokitty.com/features/staff-rotation.md)

Source: https://pianokitty.com/features/chord-notation