Fm7 piano chord, F minor 7th notes and fingering.

The Fm7 piano chord is F minor 7th: F, Ab, C and Eb. It is the F minor triad (F, Ab, C) with a minor seventh (Eb) added on top, ten semitones above the root. Chord charts write it as Fm7 or Fmin7.

How to play Fm7 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 Ab, finger 3 on C and finger 5 on Eb. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all four keys together. In root position they run from F4 to Eb5, a reach of 10 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 Eb4, one octave lower: F with finger 5, Ab with finger 3, C with finger 2, Eb with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the four positions, with F, Ab, C and Eb at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. As written the keys read F, Ab, C and Eb. Sharps shows F, G#, C and D#, and Flats shows F, Ab, C and Eb. This chord is written with flats, so As written and Flats match.

How Fm7 is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 3, 7, 10. Stacked on each other the gaps are 3 + 4 + 3: a minor third, a major third and another minor third. Leave out the root and the top three notes, Ab, C and Eb, make a major triad: Ab major. That is why Fm7 and Abmaj7 look so alike on the keyboard.

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. Ab4 is 1 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-1/12) gives about 415.30 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. Two of the four notes are black keys (Ab and Eb) and two are white keys (F and C). Your little finger plays Eb, a black key with D and E beside it. The little finger is short, so let the hand lean a little toward its edge and aim for the middle of the key. Finger 2 presses Ab, a black key between G and A. The middle fingers are the longest, so they reach black keys most easily.

Fm7 inversions and fingering

Fm7 has four positions. In root position F is at the bottom. In the first inversion, Ab is at the bottom and the chord is written Fm7/Ab. In the second inversion, C is at the bottom and the chord is written Fm7/C. In the third inversion, Eb is at the bottom and the chord is written Fm7/Eb. The tightest reach, 8 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the second inversion. The widest, at 10, is the root position.

The keys that hold Fm7

Fm7 fits six 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 Eb major, with 3 flats, where it is chord ii7.

Progressions that use Fm7, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• Eb major: ii7-V7-Imaj7, which is Fm7, Bb7, Ebmaj7, the ii-V-I, the standard jazz resolution.
• C minor: i7-iv7-v7-i7, which is Cm7, Fm7, Gm7, Cm7, the minor-key cadence.
• Ab major: Imaj7-V7-vi7-IVmaj7, which is Abmaj7, Eb7, Fm7, Dbmaj7, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in Eb major. The chord before Fm7 in the first progression above is Ebmaj7 (Eb, G, Bb and D). From Ebmaj7 in root position, the closest way to reach Fm7 is its root position (F, Ab, C and Eb, lowest note first): no note stays in place, and the notes move 6 semitones in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

The same four keys can be named a second way. Fm7 holds the same notes as Ab6 (Ab, C, Eb and F). The name you read depends on which note is lowest: with F at the bottom it is Fm7, with Ab at the bottom it is Ab6.

What Fm7 sounds like

Minor 7th chords are mellow. The added seventh softens the plain minor triad, so the chord feels smoother and less heavy. You hear them in jazz, soul, R and B and pop, and as the ii chord of a ii-V-I.

Fm7 is the ii7 chord in Eb major, the iv7 chord in C minor and the vi7 chord in Ab major.

A common mistake with Fm7

A common mistake is pressing A instead of Ab, one semitone higher than the third of Fm7. That gives F7 (F, A, C and Eb), a dominant 7th. If the chord sounds brighter and more tense than you expected, the third is the note to check.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Fm7: F minor (the same chord without the seventh; shares F, Ab and C); F7 (a major third instead; shares F, C and Eb); Abmaj7 (shares three notes with it); Ab major (the major triad on top of it; shares Ab, C and Eb).

Once Fm7 feels easy, play it and then Bb7 to hear a ii-V move. 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.