Amaj7 guitar chord

Amaj7 (A major seventh) is built from A, C#, E and G#, the degrees 1–3–5–7. On guitar, the main shape is x 0 2 1 2 0, the first diagram, marked with the star.

Play a plain A. Nice — but ground-floor nice. Now hit play: Amaj7 is the same house with high ceilings.

Hear Amaj7 before you play

Why Amaj7 sounds this way

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. Play the arpeggio again, no rush 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.

How to play Amaj7 on guitar

On the guitar, six strings give the chord room to breathe — some positions use them all, others ask you to mute the lowest ones. So go with the first position below — 2 open strings as a bonus; it's the main shape — that's why it carries the ⭐. 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: Get in tune before you play: chromatic tuner and reference tones, free in standard tuning · try it in Chord and 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.

Amaj7 notes and degrees

Amaj7 stacks the root A, the major third C#, the perfect fifth E and the major seventh G#.

Where Amaj7 shows up

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. 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.

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Where Amaj7 usually goes

Treating Amaj7 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.

Going beyond Amaj7

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.

Scales to improvise over Amaj7

To improvise over Amaj7 as home, the A Ionian scale covers it whole: it contains every note of the chord. The best fit depends on the key, the surrounding chords and the tensions you want. And when the dominant (E) pulls back, the leading tone Ab is the note that wants to resolve home.

Swaps that work:

• F#m7F#m7F#m7F#m7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
• C#m7C#m7C#m7C#m7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function

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Amaj7 jazz voicings

Jazz Lab: Drop 2 voicings in any key, free; drop 3 and shell are part of Pro · open in Chord and 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 October 20, 2026