Am
- A1
- C♭3
- E5
Am is A, C and E.
Am has three notes, and the 5-string bass has five strings to play them on. The rest of this page shows how a hand fits one to the other.
On the staff
On a bass staff, Am is written A, C and E.
The staff shows the notes one after the other, then together. Written this way the chord is in close position, which means each note sits as near to the one below it as the spelling allows. A guitar almost never plays a chord in close position.
Am under a hand
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds A, E, A and C, which are the degrees 1 5 1 ♭3 rather than the 1 ♭3 5 of the written chord. The root is the lowest note, so this grip is in root position and sounds the way the written chord suggests. With A in the bass and four strings sounding three notes, the 1 appears more than once.
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds C, E, A, E and A, which are the degrees ♭3 5 1 5 1 rather than the 1 ♭3 5 of the written chord. The lowest note is the ♭3 rather than the root, so this grip is in first inversion, written Am/C. It has the same notes as the root-position grip, but with C in the bass it sounds different. With C in the bass and five strings sounding three notes, the 1 and 5 appear more than once.
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds E, C, E and A, which are the degrees 5 ♭3 5 1 rather than the 1 ♭3 5 of the written chord. The lowest note is the 5 rather than the root, so this grip is in second inversion, written Am/E. It has the same notes as the root-position grip, but with E in the bass it sounds different. With E in the bass and four strings sounding three notes, the 5 appears more than once.
Three shapes for Am on 5-string bass: Am, Am/C and Am/E.
Every grip here is Am, but no two of them sound alike. A chord with the root as its lowest note is in root position, and a chord with any other note at the bottom is an inversion. On a keyboard you choose the inversion you want, but on a neck the shape your hand can reach usually decides it for you. When a grip sounds a note more than once, the fretting hand decides which note that is, not the harmony.
A, C and E on the whole neck
This diagram marks every A, C and E on the first fifteen frets of the 5-string bass.
Every grip above is a handful of the notes on this diagram, and none of them uses a note that is not shown here.
Where Am comes from
Am is a chord of C major, D natural minor, E natural minor, F major, G major and A natural minor.
A chord does not belong to a single key. Each major or natural minor key listed here contains every note of Am, which is why the same grip turns up in songs that otherwise have little in common.