Abmaj7 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 Abmaj7 — drop 3 voicings
Abmaj7 is Ab, C, Eb and G — Ab with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Abmaj7 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written AbM7, AbΔ7, AbΔ, Abma7 or Ab major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmaj7
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.
Abmaj7 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, C in the bass, Eb in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the C 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 xxx113 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for Abmaj7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xxx113 | 1st fret | Ab, root position | G | all fretted |
| xx1113 | 1st fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| 465544 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx6888 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | barred |
| x-11-10-8-8-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | barred |
| x-11-10-12-9-x | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x-11-13-12-13-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 14 drop 2 and 2 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abmaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (Bb), the #11 (D) and the 13 (F).
How to use Abmaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmaj7 is Bbm7 to Eb7 — the ii and the V of Ab — and Eb7 shares its third and seventh with Bbm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Abmaj7 belongs to C minor (the ♭VI), Eb major (the IV, the subdominant), F minor (the ♭III) and Ab major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Abmaj7
Every note of Abmaj7 is in Ab major and Ab lydian.
Chords near Abmaj7
Change one note of Abmaj7 and you have Ab (drop the major seventh), Abmaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Abmaj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), Abmaj9 (add the ninth), AbmMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Abadd9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
Abmaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abmaj7’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.