Bm7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bm7 — shell voicings
Bm7 is B, D, F# and A — Bm 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.
Bm7 notes and formula
| B | D | F# | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Pre-dominant — the ii of a major key, and a tonic in its own right.
Also written Bmin7, B-7 or B minor 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bm7
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Bm7 has 8 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx4435 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for Bm7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x24232 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| xx4435 | 3rd fret | F#, 2nd inversion | A | all fretted |
| 797777 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-11-10-10 | 9th fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-14-12-14-12-x | 12th fret | B, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-14-12-14-15-x | 12th fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bm7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (C#), the 11 (E) and the 13 (G#).
How to use Bm7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bm7 is C#m7♭5 to F#7♭9: the ii and the V of B minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Bm7 belongs to D major (the vi), E minor (the v), F# minor (the iv), G major (the iii), A major (the ii) and B minor (the i).
What to play over Bm7
Every note of Bm7 is in B minor pentatonic, B blues, B dorian, B natural minor and B phrygian.
Chords near Bm7
Change one note of Bm7 and you have Bm (drop the flat seventh), Bm6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Bm7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Bm9 (add the ninth), BmMaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or Bmadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth).
Bm7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Bm7’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.