Sevenths
B major 7th chord
Lush and mellow — a signature sound of jazz, soul and bossa nova.
Bmaj7 is the Imaj7 chord in B major and IVmaj7 in F♯ major. In minor keys: IIImaj7 in G♯ minor and VImaj7 in E♭ minor.
- Notes
- BD♯F♯A♯
- Formula
- 1357
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th · major 7th
How to play Bmaj7
About the B major 7th chord
Bmaj7 is the IVmaj7 of F♯ and the Imaj7 of B.
Playing it
On guitar, Bmaj7 has an open-position shape, x21302, using four fingers alongside the open strings. Don’t strum the low E string.
On piano, Bmaj7 has three black keys (D♯, F♯ and A♯) and one white key.
On ukulele the usual Bmaj7 shape is 3322, with a small 2-string barre at the 2nd fret.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form D♯m (D♯ F♯ A♯) — so you can think of Bmaj7 as D♯m with B added underneath.
Move a single note and Bmaj7 becomes a different chord: drop the A♯ for B, lower A♯ to A for B7, swap A♯ for G♯ for B6 and swap A♯ for C♯ for Badd9.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find Bmaj7 in common progressions such as C♯m7–F♯7–Bmaj7 (the jazz cadence in B major).
