Am7
How to play the A Minor 7th. Chord on your piano or keyboard
From the chord symbol Am7 we get the following information:
- The Am7 chord has the note A as root note
- The Am7 chord is a 4-note chord (a tetrad)
- The Am7 chord is a minor chord
Because Am7 is a 4-note chord it also has 4 inversions:
- Root inversion
- 1st. inversion
- 2nd. inversion
- 3rd. inversion
Am7 chord – Root inversion (basic inversion) looks like this: A – C – E – G
Am7 chord – 1st. inversion: C – E – G – A
Am7 chord – 2nd. inversion: E – G – A – C
Am7 chord – 3rd. inversion: G – A – C – E
Am chord – fingering:
Root inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Note | A | C | E | G |
1st. inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Note | C | E | G | A |
2nd. inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Note | E | G | A | C |
3rd. inversion:
| Finger | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Note | G | A | C | E |
Am chord – Closely related scales and harmonic functions:
The Am7 chord is the 1st. step in the Am minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Am7 | Bm7(b5) | Cmaj7 | Dm7 | Em7 | Fmaj7 | G7 |
The Am chord is the 4th. step in the E minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Em7 | F#m7(b5) | Gmaj7 | Am7 | Bm7 | Cmaj7 | D7 |
The Am chord is the 5th. step in the D minor scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Dm7 | Em7(b5) | Fmaj7 | Gm7 | Am7 | Bbmaj7 | C7 |
The Am chord is the 6th. step in the C major scale
| Step | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Chord | Cmaj7 | Dm7 | Em7 | Fmaj7 | G7 | Am7 | Bm7(b5) |