Amaj7 · Cavaquinho

You know the hotel-lobby pianist, playing so nobody leaves? This is their chord. Amaj7 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: G#, the new note, lives a half step from A — that close, it should grind. And it does. But C# and E 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 tension, domesticated — 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 Amaj7. The second is the first one after sunset. Repeat until it stops sounding "wrong" — for a lot of people this chord feels odd on the first listen 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

The mid-neck positions are the favorites of anyone backing a singer: up there, a maj7 turns into carpet. File that away for the day you play with someone.

What is Amaj7?

Amaj7: 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, Amaj7 works as VImaj7 in C# minor, IVmaj7 in E major, IIImaj7 in F# minor — almost always the deluxe I or the elegant IV. It was bossa nova's signature and became the world's: today it shows up from jazz to indie without asking permission.

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

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

Where it tends to go

Treating Amaj7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it tends to go toward the pre-dominant (Bm / D) or the dominant (E / G#°) — and the dominant pulls back home. It's a tendency, not a law.

Every shape of Amaj7 lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. Made by musicians, no ads.

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.

Improvising in context

To improvise over Amaj7 as home, the A Ionian scale covers it whole — 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:

• Gbm7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
• Dbm7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function

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

The same chord, dressed for jazz

Jazz Lab — Drop 2, drop 3 and shell in any key — the Jazz Lab opens them all · 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 July 9, 2026