Am
How to play the A Minor Chord on your piano or keyboard
From the chord symbol Am we get the following information:
- The Am chord has the note A as root note
- The Am chord is a 3-note chord (a triad)
- The Am chord is a minor chord
Because Am is a 3-note chord it also has 3 inversions:
- Root inversion
- 1st. inversion
- 2nd. inversion
Am chord – Root inversion (basic inversion) looks like this: A – C – E
Am chord – 1st. inversion (root note at the top of the chord): C – E – A
Am chord – 2nd. inversion (root note in the middle of the chord): E – A – C
Am chord – fingering:
Root inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Note | A | C | E |
1st. inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Note | C | E | A |
2nd. inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Note | E | A | C |
Am chord – Closely related scales and harmonic functions:
The Am chord is the 1st. step in the Am minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Am | Bm(b5) | C | Dm | Em | F | G |
The Am chord is the 4th. step in the E minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Em | F#m(b5) | G | Am | Bm | C | D |
The Am chord is the 5th. step in the D minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Dm | Em(b5) | F | G | Am | Bb | C |
The Am chord is the 6th. step in the C major scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | C | Dm | Em | F | G | Am | Bm(b5) |