My Guitar Notes

Fm7 — F minor seventh chord

A minor triad with a minor seventh added. The interval between the third and the seventh is a perfect fifth.

Symbol
Fm7
Root
F
Quality
Minor seventh
Family
seventh
Notes
F Ab C Eb
Degree formula
1 b3 5 b7
Semitones from the root
0 3 7 10
Distinct pitch classes
4
Interval structure
Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 3 semitones
Notation
Written m7 or min7. The chord on the second, third and sixth degrees of a major key, and the tonic of a minor key in jazz.
Key
F · F major / D minor key signature

Formula

The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.

DegreeNoteSemitonesInterval from the root
1F0Perfect unison
b3Ab3Minor third
5C7Perfect fifth
b7Eb10Minor seventh

Inversions

An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.

InversionBass noteDegree in the bassNotes above the bassSemitones above the bass
root positionF1F – Ab – C – Eb0 3 7 10
first inversionAbb3Ab – C – Eb – F0 4 7 9
second inversionC5C – Eb – F – Ab0 3 5 8
third inversionEbb7Eb – F – Ab – C0 2 5 9

Playable voicings

These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.

#Shape (low string first)NotesDegreesBassSpan (frets)Sounding strings
11-3-1-1-1-1F C Eb Ab C F1 5 b7 b3 5 1F26
213-11-13-13-13-11F Ab Eb Ab C Eb1 b3 b7 b3 5 b7F26
313-11-13-13-13-13F Ab Eb Ab C F1 b3 b7 b3 5 1F26
413-15-13-13-13-13F C Eb Ab C F1 5 b7 b3 5 1F26
51-3-1-1-1-4F C Eb Ab C Ab1 5 b7 b3 5 b3F36
61-3-1-1-4-1F C Eb Ab Eb F1 5 b7 b3 b7 1F36

Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.

Related chords and scales

Related