Chord & FretAm7 · Cavaquinho
End of the workday, headphones on, the bus moving slowly — and, strangely, everything's fine. That state of mind has a chord symbol: Am7. Press play down there and recognize it.
Listen first
What you just heard
The recipe: take the Am you know — A, C, E — and add G on top. Play the arpeggio again, no rush and wait for the fourth note. It doesn't make the chord happy; it takes the weight off its shoulders. That's why bossa nova, neo-soul and the whole of R&B live here.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the cavaquinho, four steel strings tuned D–G–B–D pack the chord into a small, bright space — every finger counts. So start with the first position below — the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. Four notes sharing the same space, so there's one rule: every single one has to ring. Go note by note, like checking signatures. A muffled chord here is a double waste.
1 more shape of this chord on the neck
That's 218,399 voicings and inversions in Chord & Fret Pro, ready to play.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · try it in Chord & Fret
And keep the mid-neck positions in your pocket: in modern comping they're worth more than the open one, because they leave room for a voice on top. You'll get it the first time you play behind a singer.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is Am7?
Am7: A minor with Seventh. The notes are A, C, E, G (fixed-do: La, Do, Mi, Sol) — the degrees 1–b3–5–b7.
Where this chord lives
Here's the backstage secret: Am7's classic job is being the ii — the first piece of the ii–V–I, the most-used sentence in jazz and everything jazz ever touched. Across keys you'll find it as v7 in D minor, iv7 in E minor, i7 in A minor. In other words: this chord is almost never standing still; it's setting something up.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · open in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · use it in Chord & Fret
Where it tends to go
Treating Am7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (Bm / D) or the dominant (E / G#°) — and the dominant pulls back home. It's a tendency, not a law.
When you want to go further
For improvising, A Dorian (A B C D E F# G · 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7: the minor scale with a major sixth — the minor that smirks); A Aeolian (A B C D E F G · 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7: the natural minor, the major scale's relative sibling); A Dorian ♭2 (A Bb C D E F# G · 1 b2 b3 4 5 6 b7: a dorian with a lowered second) contain the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the bottom are these same four notes rearranged across the neck: same chord, arranger's tailoring.
A Dorian
4 more scale positions on the neck
That's 35,178 mapped scale shapes in Chord & Fret Pro, ready to play.
The same A Dorian in its main shapes along the neck — pick whichever position sits under your hand. The rings mark the guide notes (the 3rd and 7th) that carry this chord's color.
Scale — The whole scale on the neck — in boxes or three notes per string, with an exercise and a tempo ramp · try it in Chord & Fret
Improvising in context
To improvise over Am7 as home, the A Aeolian scale fits entirely — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (E) pulls back, the leading tone Ab is the note that wants to resolve home.
Swaps that work:
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · see it in Chord & Fret
The thing this chord is preparing has a name: D7. Chain the two and there it is — half a ii–V in your pocket, jazz's favorite sentence.
Every shape of Am7 lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. Plays offline. Made by musicians, no ads.