Gmaj7 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 Gmaj7 — drop 3 voicings
Gmaj7 is G, B, D and F# — G with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Gmaj7 notes and formula
| G | B | D | F# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written GM7, GΔ7, GΔ, Gma7 or G major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gmaj7
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.
Gmaj7 has 10 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, B in the bass, D in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 320002 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 320002 | open position | G, root position | F# | 3 open strings |
| 354433 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5777 | 5th fret | G, root position | B | barred |
| x-10-9-7-7-7 | 7th fret | G, root position | B | barred |
| x-10-9-11-8-x | 8th fret | G, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-10-12-11-12-10 | 10th fret | G, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-x-x-12-12-14 | 12th fret | G, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-x-12-12-12-14 | 12th fret | D, 2nd inversion | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 14 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Gmaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (A), the #11 (C#) and the 13 (E).
How to use Gmaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gmaj7 is Am7 to D7 — the ii and the V of G — and D7 shares its third and seventh with Am7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Gmaj7 belongs to D major (the IV, the subdominant), E minor (the ♭III), G major (the I, the tonic) and B minor (the ♭VI).
What to play over Gmaj7
Every note of Gmaj7 is in G major and G lydian.
Chords near Gmaj7
Change one note of Gmaj7 and you have G (drop the major seventh), Gmaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Gmaj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), Gmaj9 (add the ninth), GmMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Gadd9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
Gmaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Gmaj7’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.