AmMaj7 is A, C, E and G#: a triad plus the .
Players use AmMaj7 when they want with tension still in it. The major 7th, , sits one fret below , pulling toward the root.
Hear that tension by starting with .
One repeated root falls one fret to the major 7th. The minor 3rd and 5th stay put.
In the name, “minor” refers to the , while “major 7” refers to .
Also written AmM7, Am(maj7), A-Δ7 or AminMaj7.
AmMaj7 is a minor I, never a ii. Classical harmony rarely ends on it; jazz lands a minor ii–V–i on it all the time, and then lets it settle to the sixth.
Listen for: The dominant’s third holds over the barline as the major seventh, then steps down to the sixth.
Works when the melody isn’t sitting on the sixth or the seventh.
Heard in“Autumn Leaves”, the last four bars of the A section“Nica’s Dream”, the opening chord
A common use of AmMaj7 is to move one note downward while the rest of a minor chord stays in place.
You can hear this in The Beatles’ “Something.” During “I don’t want to leave her now,” the chords move Am → AmMaj7 → Am7 → D9 while one note falls A → G♯ → G → F♯. Am → AmMaj7 → Am7 is the core move; D9 continues the line as the harmony changes.
Listen for: Follow the highlighted note as it falls. The minor chord stays largely in place for the first three shapes; on {3}, the line continues as the harmony changes.
Heard inThe Beatles, “Something”
Contains AmMaj7 and adds ninth, eleventh and flat thirteenth.
Contains AmMaj7 and adds ninth, eleventh and thirteenth.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.