A#maj7 · Cavaquinho

You know the hotel-lobby pianist, playing so nobody leaves? This is their chord. A#maj7 is your regular A# with the window open — same house, more air. Give the audio below a listen and notice how it asks you to stay.

Listen first

What you just heard

Here's the curious part: A, the new note, lives a half step from A# — that close, it should grind. And it does. But D and F hold the room, so the grind turns into shimmer instead of a fight. Now listen to the arpeggio, one note at a time all the way to the last note and wait: you'll feel the spark without the fire. It's danger with a seatbelt on — which is why it sounds expensive.

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 go with the first position below; the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. Then do the before-and-after: A#, then A#maj7. The second is the first one after sunset. Run it a few times: this chord tends to feel odd on the first pass and addictive by the third.

Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · use it in Chord & Fret

Higher up the neck this chord becomes comping carpet — the kind of sound that flatters any voice on top. Positions are right below.

Every shape of A#maj7 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. Works offline, no account needed.

What is A#maj7?

A#maj7: A# Major with Major Seventh. The notes are A#, C##, E#, G## (fixed-do: La#, Do##, Mi#, Sol##) — the degrees 1–3–5–7.

Where this chord lives

Across keys, A#maj7 works as Imaj7 in A# major — almost always the deluxe I or the elegant IV. Bossa nova made it a signature and the world copied it; today you hear this chord from jazz to indie pop without it asking permission.

Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · see it in Chord & Fret

Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · open in Chord & Fret

Where it tends to go

Treating A#maj7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (Cm / Eb) or the dominant (F / A°) — and the dominant pulls back home. Typically, not a rule.

When you want to go further

For improvising, A# Ionian (A# B# C## D# E# F## G## · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: the plain major scale, where everything starts); A# Lydian (A# B# C## D## E# F## G## · 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7: the major scale with a raised fourth — one extra step of daydream); A# Lydian ♯2 (A# B## C## D## E# F## G## · 1 #2 3 #4 5 6 7: a lydian with a raised second, harmonic-major color) wrap the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the end are the same four notes spread across the neck, for the day you want to sound like an arranger.

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 A#maj7 as home, the A# Ionian scale fits entirely — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (F) pulls back, the leading tone A is the note that wants to resolve home.

Swaps that work:

• Gm7Gm7Gm7Gm7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
• Dm7Dm7Dm7Dm7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function

Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · try it in Chord & Fret

And when the song wants solid ground again, the way back is short: plain A#. Drop the seventh, close the window — the house is still there.

Updated August 5, 2026