A m7 Guitar Chord | Play, Hear and Practice Interactively

An Am7 chord, A minor seventh, contains A, C, E and G. Of the 20 voicings on this page, ten use open strings and eight use a barre.

Its notes are the same as C6 with A in the bass. It is the ii chord of G major, the iii chord of F major and the vi chord of C major. For a solo over it, try the A minor pentatonic scale, which holds every chord tone. Reading the interval pattern helps to see why.

The fretboard at the top labels each note of each voicing.

A minor 7th guitar chord is also written as Am7, Amin7, A-7 or Ami7.

A M7 Guitar Chord Diagrams

Position 1 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Let the G string play without pressing any fret
• Let the high E string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string

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Position 2 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 5 of the low E, D, G and high E strings at the same time
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 7 of the A string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 8 of the B string

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Position 3 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 7 of the D string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 8 of the B string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 8 of the high E string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 9 of the G string

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Position 4 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 5 of the low E, D, G, B and high E strings at the same time
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 7 of the A string

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Position 5 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 2 of the G string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 3 of the high E string

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Position 6 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the A string
• Mute the B string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 5 of the low E string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the D and G strings at the same time

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Position 7 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the A string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 5 of the low E string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the D, G and B strings at the same time

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Position 8 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Let the G string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 3 of the high E string

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Position 9 Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 10 of the D string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 12 of the A string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 12 of the G string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 13 of the B string

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Position 10 Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Mute the B string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 10 of the D string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 12 of the A string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 12 of the G string

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Position 11 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Mute the D string
• Let the G string play without pressing any fret
• Mute the high E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string

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Position 12 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Let the G string play without pressing any fret
• Mute the high E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string

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Position 13 Barre Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 5 of the D, G, B and high E strings at the same time

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Position 14 Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Mute the D string
• Mute the G string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 12 of the A string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 13 of the B string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 15 of the high E string

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Position 15 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the A string
• Let the G string play without pressing any fret
• Let the high E string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 3 of the low E string

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Position 16 Barre Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Let the A string play without pressing any fret
• Mute the B string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the D and G strings at the same time

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Position 17 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the A string
• Mute the high E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 7 of the D string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 8 of the low E and B strings at the same time
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 9 of the G string

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Position 18 Barre Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 3 of the A string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the D, G, B and high E strings at the same time

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Position 19 Movable

Finger Positions

• Mute the low E string
• Mute the A string
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 2 of the G string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 3 of the high E string

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Position 20 Open

Finger Positions

• Mute the A string
• Let the high E string play without pressing any fret
• Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the B string
• Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the D string
• Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 2 of the G string
• Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 3 of the low E string

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Find more shapes in our all guitar chords online library. If you prefer a printable pdf, download the Free Guitar Chords Chart Pdf

As many of you may know an A major chord is made up the root , major third , and perfect fifth from the scale:

A B C# D E F# G#

The notes A C# E make up that Amaj, if we wanted an A minor we would then use the root , minor third , and perfect fifth. Indeed, the A minor scale is:

A B C D E F G

In the Amin7 chord, the seventh at the end further denotes that we have a minor nondominant seventh chord (because the dominant chord is composed of a major chord plus a minor seventh). So with that minor seventh we get the notes:

A C E G

When To Use The Minor Seventh Chord

There are a variety of places to use the minor seventh, sometimes in place of a regular minor chord to add some tension .

Another way of using the Am7 is to substitute it for a regular 7th.

Keys With The Amin7 Chord

The best keys to use Amin7 in are Am , C , G , F and of course anywhere else that it may happen to fit.

As far as scales you will find the Am7 fits the best with the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor.

Minor 7ths can often be found in jazz , funk , pop , and rock . Whenever you have an Am that just doesn’t seem to fit try adding the minor seventh and seeing how that suits the song.

A Minor Key

C Major Key

G Major Key

F Major Key

Songs With The Am7 Chord

You will find Am7 in a lot of good music, so it is an important chord to fit into your playing. Sometimes the difference will be subtle compared to Am, but still worth the change.

• One of the more popular songs starting with and featuring Am7 is “ Rocky Raccoon ” by The Beatles. In fact the progression that plays throughout the song begins each time with Am7.
• Another example of this chord in use is the funky pop “ That’s All ” by Genesis. The verse is a back and forth Am7 to D chord.
• Other examples are “ America the Beautiful ”, “ Georgia On My Mind ”, and “ Killing Me Softly ” in the verse.

How To Play The Am7 Chord

In the image below you can see the Am7 tones on the guitar fretboard:

Using the tones above we can come up with some of the more popular versions of how to play the Am7 chord.

Usually when we play a chord we want the root note (here A) to be the lowest played bass note . Sometimes we will find a chord shape where that isn’t the case, which means the chord is an inversion.

If the lowest note is C, E, or G instead of the A than that is an inversion.

As usual there are multiple positions for this chord. The easiest being X02013 or X02010 or X02213 .

Or we can use barre chords to find a suitable Am7.

The chord Em7 is played 020000, if we move that up five frets we get an Am7 at 575555 .

Or we can play the chord with an A bass string with X05555 :

Of course we have some more complicated muted string versions of Am7, ad example 5X55X , which is a voicing commonly used in jazz, often called shell chord :

And here is a third inversion of the chord (third inversion meaning G is the bass note) 3X2210 .

Remember, any chords that require string muting will need a lot more practice !