Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Chord "Deux" Jour Challenge: Fmaj7 and Am7

I want you to learn two chords every day, until the last day of the season (December 20). If you've missed a day, please refer to this list. You have your choice between the guitar and the piano (keyboard), or both. If you're a beginner, I'll show you relatively simple ways to play each chord. If you're more advanced, you'll have the entire fretboard and/or keyboard to explore.

Simple guitar chord voicings are marked with a number representing the recommended fingers to use for fretting a chord:

1 index finger
2 middle finger
3 ring finger
4 little finger
o play open string
x do not play open string
( bar one finger over more than one string
T that rare occasion that I recommend you use your thumb to fret a note

Here's the F (major) major 7th chord (Fmaj7). If you pronounce Fmaj7 as F major 7th, other musicians will understand what you're talking about:


Beginning guitarists often find that the F chord is the hardest to fret because their fingers are just getting tough enough to press on the strings -- at least that was true for me. In the struggle to play a proper F, I probably played an accidental Fmaj7. To intentionally play an Fmaj7, just take the F chord, and leave the high E string open. Strum the D, G, B, and high E strings.

Keyboardists, any combination of F, A, C, and E notes will create the Fmaj7 chord. Be careful to keep the F and E notes about an octave or more apart; otherwise, you might have a more dissonant-sounding chord than you might want.

Here's the A minor (minor) 7th chord (Am7). Just call it A minor 7th:


Guitarists, there are two ways to look at this particular iteration of Am7: Take the C chord, and raise your ring finger off the A string. Or take the Am chord, and raise your ring finger off the G string. Strum the A, D, G, B, and high E strings.

Keyboardists, any combination of A, C, E, and G notes create the Am7 chord.

If you are a beginner, please keep practicing these chords, as well as previous chords. If you are more advanced, please discover new voicings. We'll have two more chords tomorrow. Cheers!

No comments:

Post a Comment

We'd love to hear from you! If you spot a typo or musical inconsistency (it sometimes happens), please let us know (please be nice, too). Thanks!

Comments on each post close after seven days.

guitar (1101) piano (566) keyboard (556) chord (537) dictionary (490) scale (358) major (301) minor (297) mode (222) jam session (142) drums (117) bb (113) eb (112) f (112) db (111) ab (110) c (106) gb (106) a (104) b (101) g (101) lesson (101) d (100) power chord (100) e (98) podcast (74) 7ths (72) bass (61) diminished (59) suspended (44) news (42) index (38) augmented (26) 0 flats (10) 0 sharps (10) 1 flat (10) 1 sharp (10) 2 flats (10) 2 sharps (10) 3 flats (10) 3 sharps (10) 4 flats (10) 4 sharps (10) 5 flats (10) 5 sharps (10) 6 flats (10) 6 sharps (10) backtrack (9) ukulele (4) harmonica (2) 9ths (1)