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The Bm7 chord

Start with the recipe. The notes are B - D - F# - A, a minor seventh, otherwise known as the Bm7. The chord feels smooth, smoky, conversational, which is why writers chasing a cocktail-jazz texture keep landing on it. The four-finger barre that Stevie Wonder and Wonderwall both rely on. You will find it inside jazz standards, neo-soul and yacht rock. The rest of this page lays out the common voicings, the interval theory, the progressions where the chord fits, and the records that lean on it for structural work.

Hear the Bm7 in the chord builder →

Scale degrees Note names

Voicings for Bm7

Common ways to grip the Bm7 on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.

Guitar , full chord shapes

CAGED-derived voicings for Bm7 across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.

Guitar: Em7 shape at fr.7

Notes: B - D - F# - A (chord tones)

Guitar: Am7 shape at fr.2

Notes: B - D - F# - A (chord tones)

Guitar: Dm7 shape at fr.9

Notes: B - D - F# - A (chord tones)

Guitar: top-4 voicing

Notes: B - D - F# - A (chord tones)

Guitar: high top-4 voicing

Notes: B - D - F# - A (chord tones)

Guitar , triad shapes

Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · fr.2

Notes: top-string triad, fr.2

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · fr.5

Notes: top-string triad, fr.5

Triad: top strings (G-B-e) · fr.10

Notes: top-string triad, fr.10

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.2

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.2

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.7

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.7

Triad: middle strings (D-G-B) · fr.10

Notes: middle-string triad, fr.10

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.2

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.2

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.7

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.7

Triad: bass strings (A-D-G) · fr.11

Notes: bass-side triad, fr.11

Piano voicings

Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.

Piano: root position

Notes: B - D - F# - A. Root B at the bottom. The classic stacked-thirds spelling of a minor seventh.

Piano: first inversion

Notes: D - F# - A - B. D at the bottom. Common in chord-melody, walking bass lines and gentler voicings.

Piano: second inversion

Notes: F# - A - B - D. F# at the bottom. A floating, suspended feel often used in hymns and ballads.

Piano: third inversion

Notes: A - B - D - F#. A at the bottom. The seventh in the bass , a smooth jazz favourite.

The theory behind Bm7

The Bm7 chord (B - D - F# - A) is a minor seventh. Its intervals are root, minor third, perfect fifth, minor seventh. Functionally it lives at home in a closely related major key as the passing chord, but you'll also find it in a closely related major key as the passing chord. The chord tends to walk into a dominant seventh a fifth above, which is why it shows up in jazz standards and neo-soul.

Progressions that use Bm7

Short progressions that put the Bm7 to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.

i→iv→V key of A minor

Bm7 (as passing colour)

This chord appears as a borrowed or passing chord in many minor-key progressions.

→ Build this in the chord builder

Songs that feature Bm7

Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.

Killer Queen by Queen. Bm7 within the verse harmony.
Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel. Bm7 inside the chord cycle.
Doo Wop (That Thing) by Lauryn Hill. Bm7 colour in the verse.

Related chords

Chords a step away from the Bm7 in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.

TriadB DomB7 Maj7Bmaj7 NeighbourF# NeighbourF#m NeighbourF#7 NeighbourE NeighbourEm

Keys where Bm7 lives

The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.

C major A minor

Related references

Other ways to put the Bm7 to work across the reference library.

Arpeggiooutline it with arpeggios

More songwriting tools

Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the Bm7 fits into context. All free, no signup.

About the chord builder

The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.

This page is a static reference for the Bm7. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.