How To Get The Chords To Any YouTube Song
Open any song on YouTube and choose Backing track in the Riffloop panel. Pick the instrument you'd rather play yourself — say, guitar — and Riffloop mutes it, leaving the rest of the band playing, and hands you the song's key and every chord as a shape you can follow on the neck while it plays.
Important
this is a practice tool, not a downloader. Riffloop plays the song back from YouTube with your chosen instrument muted, and shows you what to play over it. Nothing is saved to your computer as an audio file.
Before you start
You need the Riffloop Chrome extension. It opens automatically the moment you're on a YouTube video — there's nothing to click to make it appear. If you don't have it yet, see Split a YouTube song into stems, which covers the install.
Choose Backing track
The Riffloop panel offers four things you can do with a song: Loop a section, Remove vocals (Karaoke), Backing track, and Stem separation.
Click Backing track. It's the mode built specifically for muting one instrument and playing it yourself — Stem separation gives you every instrument on its own fader for full manual mixing, but Backing track is the one-click version of “take the guitar out for me.”
Pick the instrument to mute
Riffloop asks “Which instruments should we mute?” and lists six: Vocals, Drums, Bass, Piano, Guitar, and Solo & Lead.
Pick any one of them — the rest of this guide follows Guitar, but the flow is identical for the others.
Pick your section and mute it
By default the section spans the whole song. Adjust the Start and End fields if you only want part of it, then click Mute [instrument].
The button's helper text says it plainly: “Includes chords, the key and a beat-synced click for your section” — you get all of that in the same job, not as a separate step afterward.
Building a backing track uses one credit — the same allowance as Stem separation and Remove vocals, shared between the extension and the Studio. Only Loop a section is free, since it doesn't separate anything.
Wait while it builds
Riffloop builds the backing track while the video keeps playing, with a progress percentage.
Important
leave the video playing. Don't pause, seek, or change the speed. You can switch tabs — Riffloop notifies you when it's done.
Meet your backing track
You land in the Loop view with your chosen instrument silent and everything else still playing.
Across the top you get:
- The detected key (for example, Db), plus a running Key Transpose offset if you've shifted it.
- Any solo sections Riffloop found in the song, marked with their timestamps (for example, “Guitar solo 0:00–0:32”). Riffloop detects these from the mix itself — whichever instrument is actually carrying a solo in that part of the song, not necessarily the one you muted — so a track with a piano or bass break shows that label instead.
- A chord strip under the waveform, naming the chord playing at every point in the song.
Below that sits the same six-stem mixer, presets, speed and key controls the Stem separation mode uses — your muted instrument's fader reads 0%, and you're free to bring it back or adjust anyone else's level.
Open the chord shapes
Click See chord shapes to bring up the fretboard diagrams.
Follow the chord as you play
The panel shows five chord diagrams — the current chord, enlarged, in the middle, with the chords immediately before and after it on either side.
The Easy ▾ toggle in the corner switches between beginner-friendly open-position shapes and full Barre chords, if you'd rather play up the neck.
Keep the video playing and the highlighted shape moves with the song, chord by chord — follow it and you're playing the part live, in time with the rest of the band.
Credits
Building a backing track spends one credit — the same as Stem separation and Remove vocals, from a pool shared between the extension and the Studio. Signed in on the free plan you get five a day; as a guest you get three total to try it. Pro is unlimited.
Only Loop a section is free, since it doesn't separate anything. See How credits work for the full picture.
Frequently asked questions
How is Backing track different from Stem separation?
Both are built on the same six-stem separation. Backing track is the one-click version: pick the instrument you want out, and Riffloop mutes it for you. Stem separation hands you all six faders to mix by hand.
Do I need to solo an instrument first to see its chords?
No. The chord shapes and detected key come with every Backing track job, whichever instrument you mute.
Can I mute more than one instrument?
Yes, the mode's own description says it removes one or more instruments. This guide covers muting one; the flow for more than one is the same, choosing multiple instruments in the same step.
Does slowing the song down change the chords shown?
No. Speed and key are independent controls in the mixer below the chord strip, and the chord shapes follow the song's actual position, not its playback speed.
Does building a backing track use a credit?
Yes, one, the same allowance as Stem separation and Remove vocals, shared between the extension and the Studio. Signed-in free accounts get five a day; guests get three total to try it. Pro removes the limit. Only Loop a section stays free, since it doesn't separate anything.
Can I download the backing track as an audio file?
No. Riffloop is built for practising along with a song in the browser, not for exporting audio.
Is Backing track available in the Studio too, not just the extension?
Yes, Riffloop supports this on both the extension and the Studio.
Still need help? Contact the Riffloop support team →