Amaj7 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 Amaj7 — drop 3 voicings
Amaj7 is A, C#, E and G# — A with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Amaj7 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written AM7, AΔ7, AΔ, Ama7 or A major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Amaj7
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.
Amaj7 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 12th — 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 A shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 x02120 — no barre and 2 open strings. 2 of the 10 shapes here sit in open position. 6 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02120 | open position | A, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x02224 | open position | A, root position | G# | barred |
| xxx224 | 2nd fret | A, root position | G# | all fretted |
| xx2224 | 2nd fret | E, 2nd inversion | G# | barred |
| 576655 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x07999 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | barred |
| xx7999 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | barred |
| x-12-11-9-9-9 | 9th fret | A, root position | C# | barred |
| x-12-11-13-10-x | 10th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-12-14-13-14-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 13 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Amaj7, 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 Amaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Amaj7 is Bm7 to E7 — the ii and the V of A — and E7 shares its third and seventh with Bm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Amaj7 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VI), E major (the IV, the subdominant), F# minor (the ♭III) and A major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Amaj7
Every note of Amaj7 is in A major and A lydian.
Chords near Amaj7
Change one note of Amaj7 and you have A (drop the major seventh), Amaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Amaj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), Amaj9 (add the ninth), AmMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Aadd9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
Amaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Amaj7’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.