Am7 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Am7 — drop 3 voicings
Am7 is A, C, E and G — Am with the flat seventh added.
It sounds smooth and unhurried. The ii of every major key, so most progressions you already know begin on one of these.
Am7 notes and formula
| A | C | E | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Pre-dominant — the ii of a major key, and a tonic in its own right.
Also written Amin7, A-7 or A minor 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Am7
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Am7 has 10 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C in the bass, E in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x02010 — no barre and 3 open strings. 2 of the 9 shapes here sit in open position. 2 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02010 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| x02213 | open position | A, root position | G | 1 open string |
| xx2213 | 1st fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
| 575555 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| xx7988 | 7th fret | A, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-12-10-12-10-x | 10th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-12-10-12-13-x | 10th fret | A, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-12-14-12-13-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
| x-x-14-14-13-15 | 13th fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 15 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Am7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (B), the 11 (D) and the 13 (F#).
How to use Am7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Am7 is Bm7♭5 to E7♭9: the ii and the V of A minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Am7 belongs to C major (the vi), D minor (the v), E minor (the iv), F major (the iii), G major (the ii) and A minor (the i).
What to play over Am7
Every note of Am7 is in A minor pentatonic, A blues, A dorian, A natural minor and A phrygian.
Chords near Am7
Change one note of Am7 and you have Am (drop the flat seventh), Am6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Am7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Am9 (add the ninth), AmMaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or Amadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth).
Am7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Am7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.