Fmaj7 · Guitar

An empty café at ten in the morning, somebody drying cups, quiet music nobody chose but everybody approves of. That music is full of chords like Fmaj7. Hit play below.

Listen first

What you just heard

Here's the curious part: E, the new note, lives a half step from F — that close, it should grind. And it does. But A and C hold the room, so the grind turns into shimmer instead of a fight. Go back to the audio and catch the arpeggio note by note 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 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; the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. Then do the before-and-after: F, then Fmaj7. 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 · open 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 Fmaj7?

Fmaj7: F Major with Major Seventh. The notes are F, A, C, E (fixed-do: Fa, La, Do, Mi) — the degrees 1–3–5–7.

Where this chord lives

Across keys, Fmaj7 works as IVmaj7 in C major, IIImaj7 in D minor, Imaj7 in F major — 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 · use it in Chord & Fret

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

Where it tends to go

Treating Fmaj7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it tends to go toward the pre-dominant (Gm / Bb) or the dominant (C / E°) — and the dominant pulls back home. Typically, not a rule.

When you want to go further

For improvising, F Ionian (F G A Bb C D E · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: the plain major scale, where everything starts); F Lydian (F G A B C D E · 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7: the major scale with a raised fourth — one extra step of daydream); F Lydian ♯2 (F G# A B C D E · 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 Fmaj7 as home, the F Ionian scale fits entirely — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (C) pulls back, the leading tone E is the note that wants to resolve home.

Swaps that work:

• Dm7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
• Am7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function

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

If at some point you want the ground back, it's one click away: F without the seventh. The house hasn't moved.

Every shape of Fmaj7 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. No ads, no trackers.

Updated July 9, 2026