Fmaj7 piano chord, F major 7th notes and fingering.

The Fmaj7 piano chord is F major 7th: F, A, C and E. It is the F major triad with the major seventh (E) added on top, eleven semitones above the root and a single semitone below the next F. Chord charts write it as Fmaj7, FMaj7 or FM7.

How to play Fmaj7 on piano

1. Find F on the keyboard. F is the white key just left of the group of three black keys, next to E with no black key between them.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on F, finger 2 on A, finger 3 on C and finger 5 on E. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all four keys together. In root position they run from F4 to E5, a reach of 11 semitones. Play chord sounds them together and Arpeggio sounds them one by one, from the bottom up.
4. Click Left hand to see the left hand. It plays F3 to E4, one octave lower: F with finger 5, A with finger 3, C with finger 2, E with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the four positions, with F, A, C and E at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. Every note of this chord is a white key, so the Sharps and Flats choices show the same names.

How Fmaj7 is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 4, 7, 11. Stacked on each other the gaps are 4 + 3 + 4: a major third, a minor third and another major third. The seventh (E) sits one semitone under the next F, so the top and the root rub together very gently. That small clash gives the chord its soft, spacious sound.

Worked example: the pitch of F4. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 4 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-4/12), which is about 349.23 Hz. A4 is 0 semitones above A4, so 440 × 2^(0/12) gives about 440.00 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

F has no black key on its left, because E and F are only a semitone apart, and F# is the black key on its right. All four notes are white keys (F, A, C and E), so the hand can stay flat and there is no reaching for a black key. The thumb (F) and little finger (E) are both on white keys here, so the hand can lie in its natural shape.

Fmaj7 inversions and fingering

Fmaj7 has four positions. In root position F is at the bottom. In the first inversion, A is at the bottom and the chord is written Fmaj7/A. In the second inversion, C is at the bottom and the chord is written Fmaj7/C. In the third inversion, E is at the bottom and the chord is written Fmaj7/E. The tightest reach, 8 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the first inversion and third inversion. The widest, at 11, is the root position.

The keys that hold Fmaj7

Fmaj7 fits four of the major and natural minor keys that have a standard key signature, which means every note of it comes from that key's scale. The simplest is C major, with no sharps or flats, where it is chord IVmaj7.

Progressions that use Fmaj7, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• C major: Imaj7-IVmaj7-V7-Imaj7, which is Cmaj7, Fmaj7, G7, Cmaj7, the three-chord cadence of folk, rock and blues.
• A minor: i7-VImaj7-IIImaj7-VII7, which is Am7, Fmaj7, Cmaj7, G7, a common minor-key loop.
• F major: Imaj7-V7-vi7-IVmaj7, which is Fmaj7, C7, Dm7, Bbmaj7, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in C major. The chord before Fmaj7 in the first progression above is Cmaj7 (C, E, G and B). From Cmaj7 in root position, the closest way to reach Fmaj7 is its second inversion (C, E, F and A, lowest note first): two notes stay where they are, and the others move 4 semitones in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

Look at the top three notes of Fmaj7: A, C and E make a A minor chord (A, C and E). A major 7th is a minor triad with the root added underneath.

What Fmaj7 sounds like

Major 7th chords sound soft, warm and a little dreamy. They are at home in jazz, soul, bossa nova, lo-fi and ballads, and they do not need to resolve the way a dominant 7th does, so they can sit at the end of a phrase.

Fmaj7 is the IVmaj7 chord in C major, the VImaj7 chord in A minor and the Imaj7 chord in F major.

A common mistake with Fmaj7

A common mistake is pressing Eb instead of E on top, one semitone lower than the seventh of Fmaj7. That gives F7 (F, A, C and Eb), a dominant 7th with a tense sound. The top note of Fmaj7 should be the one right below the next F.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Fmaj7: F major (the same chord without the seventh; shares F, A and C); F7 (a flat seventh instead; shares F, A and C); Dm7 (shares three notes with it); Fm7 (a minor third instead; shares F and C).

Once Fmaj7 feels easy, play it and then F7 to hear what the flat seventh does. For chords beyond these six types, and for guitar and ukulele shapes, use the chord finder. To play along with your computer keys, open the virtual piano. The piano chords page lists all 72 chords.