Chord & FretA#m · Cavaquinho
Two seconds of homework. Play a A# major — or just hit play on its page — and right after, hit the play button down here. Same name, same root. But something got heavier. Nobody has to explain sadness for you to recognize it: that's A#m.
Listen first
What you just heard
The trick is smaller than it sounds. Two of the three notes didn't move: A# and F stayed put. Only the middle one dropped — a half step, the smallest distance in music — and became C#. Play the arpeggio again, no rush and stop at the second note. That's the one. Half a step separates a sunny day from a Monday morning.
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 the first position below is your way in — the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. And do the exercise that's worth a whole lesson: A# major, then A#m, then major again. Back and forth ten times, slowly. Your ear learns the difference before your brain does.
1 more shape of this chord on the neck
Chord & Fret Pro maps over 200,000 voicings and inversions — hear and play them all.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · try it in Chord & Fret
Got the first one? Good — the other positions will wait right here. In songs that travel up and down the neck, that's where you'll end up living.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is A#m?
A#m: A# minor. The notes are A#, C#, E# (fixed-do: La#, Do#, Mi#) — the degrees 1–b3–5.
Where this chord lives
In real music, A#m works almost always as v in D# minor, i in A# minor, ii in G# major. In global pop it's the famous vi: the serious detour a chorus takes without leaving the key. You've heard it a thousand times; now you'll start noticing it.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · use it in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · open in Chord & Fret
Real songs pass through here: Gospel · subida do IV
Where it tends to go
Treating A#m 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.
Every shape of A#m 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
When it's time to improvise, 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# Phrygian (A# B C# D# E# F# G# · 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7: the minor with a lowered second — a Spanish seasoning) work in full. The swaps below are the chord's cousins: different color, same job.
A# Dorian
4 more scale positions on the neck
That's over 35,000 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 3 notes per string; on the major modes, on guitar in standard tuning, with the CAGED forms named · try it in Chord & Fret
Improvising in context
To improvise over A#m as home, the A# Aeolian scale covers it whole — 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:
- Dbmaj7 — Relative major (♭III)
- Eb7 — It's the ii; resolves to this V
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · see it in Chord & Fret
There's one step left in this story. The serious A#m you just learned has a softer, late-afternoon version that lo-fi and bossa nova love: A#m7. Go hear the difference.