The Bmaj7 chord on guitar: B major seventh, easy shape to barre

Bmaj7 is B major with one extra note, A#, and that note makes the chord soft and floating where plain B sounds square. It has no open version, so it lives as a movable shape, and that is the real reason to learn it: the x24342 shape is the template for every major seventh chord with its root on the A string. Learn it here and you can play Cmaj7, Dmaj7 and Emaj7 the same way.

Bmaj7 chord: notes and shapes at a glance

• Name: B major seventh
• Symbol: Bmaj7
• Notes: B, D#, F#, A#
• Where it belongs: IVmaj7 in F# major, Imaj7 in B major, VImaj7 in D# minor, IIImaj7 in G# 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.

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.

How to play Bmaj7 step by step

1. Four strings: x2434x

First finger on the A string at fret 2: that is B, the root. Third finger on the D string at fret 4: F#. Second finger on the G string at fret 3: A#, the major seventh. Fourth finger on the B string at fret 4: D#. Strum from the A string and stop before the high E.

2. Add the high E: x24342

Let the first finger lie flat across the second fret, from the A string to the high E. It only has to press two notes, B on the A string and F# on the high E; the other strings are taken by the fingers above. Keep the low E silent with the tip of the first finger.

Bmaj7, B and B7: one note apart

Bmaj7 and B7 are often confused because both are a B chord with a seventh. The seventh is not the same note, and it changes everything.

Look at the G string: fret 4 gives B, fret 3 gives A#, fret 2 gives A. Play the three barres in a row, moving only the finger on that string, and you will hear the chord go from solid to dreamy to restless. B, Bmaj7, B7, E is a classic descending line built on exactly that move.

One shape, every major seventh

x24342 has no open strings, so it moves as a block. The root is always the note under the first finger on the A string.

Two frets down, at the nut, the same shape is Amaj7, x02120. If you know that open chord, you already know Bmaj7: the first finger simply takes over from the nut. The same logic, for every chord type, is laid out on the barre chords page.

Where Bmaj7 fits

Bmaj7 is the home chord of B major dressed up: you can end a song in B on it and it sounds finished, just gentler. In the key of F# major it is the IV chord, the one that lifts the progression before it returns. Outside those keys you will meet it in jazz, bossa and soft pop, often next to Emaj7: Bmaj7 to Emaj7 is a smooth I to IV that sounds like evening light.

Rock and folk songs rarely write Bmaj7. Where a chart says B and the song is slow, try Bmaj7 for one bar and listen: unless the melody leans on A natural, which clashes with A#, the color usually fits.