Bbmaj7 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bbmaj7 — open string voicings
Bbmaj7 is Bb, D, F and A — Bb with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Bbmaj7 notes and formula
| Bb | D | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written BbM7, BbΔ7, BbΔ, Bbma7 or Bb major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbmaj7
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
Bbmaj7 has 6 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2-1, the bottom four strings and strings 5-4-3-2-1, from the 3rd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the 5th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2-1, 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 xxx335 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for Bbmaj7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x13231 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F | all fretted |
| xxx335 | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | A | all fretted |
| xx3335 | 3rd fret | F, 2nd inversion | A | barred |
| 687766 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-x-8-10-10-10 | 8th fret | Bb, root position | D | barred |
| x-13-12-10-10-10 | 10th fret | Bb, root position | D | barred |
| x-13-12-14-11-x | 11th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-13-15-14-15-13 | 13th fret | Bb, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bbmaj7, 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 Bbmaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bbmaj7 is Cm7 to F7 — the ii and the V of Bb — and F7 shares its third and seventh with Cm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Bbmaj7 belongs to D minor (the ♭VI), F major (the IV, the subdominant), G minor (the ♭III) and Bb major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bbmaj7
Every note of Bbmaj7 is in Bb major and Bb lydian.
Chords near Bbmaj7
Change one note of Bbmaj7 and you have Bb (drop the major seventh), Bbmaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Bbmaj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), Bbmaj9 (add the ninth), BbmMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Bbadd9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
Bbmaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Bbmaj7’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.