Gm7 piano chord, G minor 7th notes and fingering.

The Gm7 piano chord is G minor 7th: G, Bb, D and F. It is the G minor triad (G, Bb, D) with a minor seventh (F) added on top, ten semitones above the root. Chord charts write it as Gm7 or Gmin7.

How to play Gm7 on piano

1. Find G on the keyboard. G is the white key between the first and second black keys of the group of three.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on G, finger 2 on Bb, finger 3 on D and finger 5 on F. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all four keys together. In root position they run from G3 to F4, 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 G2 to F3, one octave lower: G with finger 5, Bb with finger 3, D with finger 2, F with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the four positions, with G, Bb, D and F at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. As written the keys read G, Bb, D and F. Sharps shows G, A#, D and F, and Flats shows G, Bb, D and F. This chord is written with flats, so As written and Flats match.

How Gm7 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, Bb, D and F, make a major triad: Bb major. That is why Gm7 and Bbmaj7 look so alike on the keyboard.

Worked example: the pitch of G3. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 14 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-14/12), which is about 196.00 Hz. Bb3 is 11 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-11/12) gives about 233.08 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

G has a black key on each side, F# on its left and Ab on its right. One of the four notes is a black key (Bb) and three are white keys (G, D and F). Finger 2 presses Bb, a black key between A and B. The middle fingers are the longest, so they reach black keys most easily.

Gm7 inversions and fingering

Gm7 has four positions. In root position G is at the bottom. In the first inversion, Bb is at the bottom and the chord is written Gm7/Bb. In the second inversion, D is at the bottom and the chord is written Gm7/D. In the third inversion, F is at the bottom and the chord is written Gm7/F. 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 Gm7

Gm7 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 F major, with 1 flat, where it is chord ii7.

Progressions that use Gm7, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• F major: ii7-V7-Imaj7, which is Gm7, C7, Fmaj7, the ii-V-I, the standard jazz resolution.
• D minor: i7-iv7-v7-i7, which is Dm7, Gm7, Am7, Dm7, the minor-key cadence.
• Bb major: Imaj7-V7-vi7-IVmaj7, which is Bbmaj7, F7, Gm7, Ebmaj7, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in F major. The chord before Gm7 in the first progression above is Fmaj7 (F, A, C and E). From Fmaj7 in root position, the closest way to reach Gm7 is its root position (G, Bb, D and F, 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. Gm7 holds the same notes as Bb6 (Bb, D, F and G). The name you read depends on which note is lowest: with G at the bottom it is Gm7, with Bb at the bottom it is Bb6.

What Gm7 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.

Gm7 is the ii7 chord in F major, the iv7 chord in D minor and the vi7 chord in Bb major.

A common mistake with Gm7

A common mistake is pressing B instead of Bb, one semitone higher than the third of Gm7. That gives G7 (G, B, D and F), 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 Gm7: G minor (the same chord without the seventh; shares G, Bb and D); G7 (a major third instead; shares G, D and F); Bbmaj7 (shares three notes with it); Bb major (the major triad on top of it; shares Bb, D and F).

Once Gm7 feels easy, play it and then C7 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.