FmMaj7 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.
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About FmMaj7 — shell voicings
FmMaj7 is F, Ab, C and E — Fm with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds tense and wrong-footed. A minor triad carrying a major seventh: the semitone under the root over a minor chord is the first bar of a line cliché.
FmMaj7 notes and formula
| F | Ab | C | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 |
Minor tonic — the tonic of the melodic minor.
Also written FmM7, Fm(maj7), F-Δ7 or FminMaj7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play FmMaj7
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.
FmMaj7 has 5 of them, on strings 6-4-3, the low-middle three, strings 5-3-2 and the bottom three strings, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut.
Start with xx3554 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for FmMaj7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 132111 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3554 | 3rd fret | F, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x8655x | 5th fret | F, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-8-10-9-9-8 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-10-13-12 | 10th fret | Ab, 1st inversion | E | all fretted |
| x-x-15-13-13-12 | 12th fret | F, root position | E | all fretted |
| 13-15-14-13-13-13 | 13th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of FmMaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (G), the 11 (Bb) and the 13 (D).
How to use FmMaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on FmMaj7 is Gm7♭5 to C7♭9: the ii and the V of F minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over FmMaj7
Every note of FmMaj7 is in F harmonic minor and F melodic minor.
Chords near FmMaj7
Change one note of FmMaj7 and you have Fm (drop the major seventh), Fmaj7 (the minor third becomes a major third), Fm6 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Fm7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), FmMaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth) or FmMaj9 (add the ninth).
FmMaj7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On FmMaj7’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.