Sevenths
F major 7th chord
Lush and mellow — a signature sound of jazz, soul and bossa nova.
Fmaj7 is the Imaj7 chord in F major and IVmaj7 in C major. In minor keys: IIImaj7 in D minor and VImaj7 in A minor.
- Notes
- FACE
- Formula
- 1357
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th · major 7th
How to play Fmaj7
About the F major 7th chord
Fmaj7 is the IVmaj7 of C — often used in place of plain F for a softer, more open sound, and because it’s much easier to play.
Playing it
On guitar, Fmaj7 has an open-position shape, 132210, using four fingers alongside the open strings.
On piano, Fmaj7 sits entirely on white keys.
On ukulele the usual Fmaj7 shape is 2410, using three fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Am (A C E) — so you can think of Fmaj7 as Am with F added underneath.
Move a single note and Fmaj7 becomes a different chord: drop the E for F, lower E to E♭ for F7, swap E for D for F6 and swap E for G for Fadd9.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find Fmaj7 in common progressions such as Gm7–C7–Fmaj7 (the jazz cadence in F major).
