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The Am7/G chord on guitar

Am7/G is an A minor seventh chord standing on its seventh. Same four notes as Am7, but G instead of A at the bottom. On its own it sounds a little unsettled; after an Am it sounds like the bass has taken one step down a staircase. That is its job, and once you hear it, the shape takes ten seconds to learn.

Am7/G chord: notes and shapes at a glance

  • Name: A minor seventh over G
  • Symbol: Am7/G
  • Notes: A, C, E, G
  • Bass note: G, the lowest note you play
  • Where it belongs: vi7 in C major, iii7 in F major, ii7 in G major, ivm7 in E minor, im7 in A minor

Each shape below is written from the thickest string to the thinnest: a number is the fret, 0 an open string, x a string you do not play. New to this? See how to read chord diagrams.

Shape Frets, low E to high E Notes, low to high What it is for
Am7/G, open 302010 G A E G C E The open Am7 with G added on the low E at fret 3. Six strings, the seventh in the bass.
Am7/G, from the Am grip 302210 G A E A C E Keep the full A minor shape and add the fourth finger on the low E at fret 3. Often written Am/G: the same four notes, with G only in the bass.
Am7/G, four strings xx5555 G C E A One finger across the top four strings at fret 5. G on the D string is the bass, A on top.
Am7/G, tenth fret x 10 10 9 10 x G C E A G on the A string at fret 10. First finger on the G string at 9, then second, third and fourth on the A, D and B strings at 10.
Am7/G, open 3 0 2 0 1 0 3 · 2 · 1 · fingers
Am7/G, from the Am grip 3 0 2 2 1 0 4 · 2 3 1 · fingers
Am7/G, four strings x x 5 5 5 5 · · 1 1 1 1 fingers
Am7/G, tenth fret x 10 10 9 10 x

Read each diagram from the thickest string on the left to the thinnest on the right. A cross means the string is not played, a circle means it rings open.

Am7/G on the neck: every A, C, E, G

Standard tuning, frets 0 to 12. The highlighted notes are the notes of Am7/G: any shape you build from them, anywhere on the neck, is still Am7/G.

Fretboard notes
Swipe the fretboard sideways to see every fret.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1 - E
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B
C
C#
D
D#
E
2 - B
B
C
C#
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B
3 - G
G
G#
A
A#
B
C
C#
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
4 - D
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B
C
C#
D
5 - A
A
A#
B
C
C#
D
D#
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
6 - E
E
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B
C
C#
D
D#
E

How to play Am7/G

Start from the open Am7 (x02010): second finger on the D string at fret 2, first finger on the B string at fret 1. Now add the third finger on the low E at fret 3. That G is the new bass. Strum all six strings.

String Fret Note Role
Low E (6th)3GBass, minor seventh
A (5th)0ARoot
D (4th)2EFifth
G (3rd)0GMinor seventh
B (2nd)1CMinor third
High E (1st)0EFifth
If you would rather not let go of the A minor grip, keep it and reach the low E at fret 3 with the fourth finger: 302210. The open G string is then covered, so G is heard only in the bass. Both shapes are correct.

The descending bass line

Am7/G rarely stands alone. It is one step of a bass line that walks down from A while the upper notes stay close together. The most common version on guitar:

Chord Shape Bass note
Amx02210A
Am/G#4x2210G#
Am7/G302010G
D/F#2x0232F#
Fmaj7xx3210F

Play it slowly and listen only to the lowest note: A, G#, G, F#, F. The chords above it are there to keep that line company. Skip the G# step and you have the shorter Am, Am7/G, D/F#, F version that turns up in many songs. The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps is built on this kind of falling bass, with Am over G as one of its steps.

The other chords of the line have their own pages: Am/G#, D/F# and Fmaj7.

Common mistakes

  • The bass G is weak. The third finger lies flat and touches the A string. Come down on the fingertip so the open A rings right above it.
  • Skipping the bass in the strum. The whole chord exists for that G. Start the strum on the low E, or pick the G alone on the beat and strum the rest after.
  • Reading it as two chords. Am7/G is not "Am7, then G". It is one chord, played at once.

Same notes, other names

A, C, E, G with G at the bottom can be named more than one way. Am7/G is the name when the music is in A minor and the bass is moving. Spell the notes from C and you get C, E, G, A: C6, which with G in the bass is C6/G. Same sound, different context. For the root position chords, see Am7 and C6; for another slash chord with a G bass, C/G.

Frequently asked questions

How do you play Am7/G on guitar?
Play 302010: third finger on the low E at fret 3, second finger on the D string at fret 2, first finger on the B string at fret 1, the A, G and high E strings open. Strum all six strings.
What does the slash in Am7/G mean?
The chord is before the slash, the bass note after it. Am7/G is an A minor seventh chord (A, C, E, G) with G as the lowest note instead of A. The notes do not change, only which one sits at the bottom.
Is Am7/G the same as Am/G?
In practice, almost always. Am/G is A minor with a G bass, so its notes are A, C, E and G: exactly the notes of Am7. Some charts write Am/G when the G is only in the bass, Am7/G when it also appears higher up. The shapes 302010 and 302210 both work for either.
Why does Am7/G sound like it is going down?
Because it usually follows Am. The bass drops from A to G while the rest of the chord stays put, and the ear follows that falling line. It almost always keeps going: to F#, then F, or to another chord with a lower bass.
Yohann Abbou, guitar teacher and founder of Guitar Social Club

Who made this

Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris who teaches adults. Every shape on this page is written string by string and checked against standard tuning, and the diagrams are drawn from those same fret numbers. The rest of our free guitar tools, including the chord finder, work the same way.

More about Yohann on his page, and about why Guitar Social Club exists.