B♭maj7
- B♭1
- D3
- F5
- A7
B♭maj7 is B♭, D, F and A.
B♭maj7 has four notes, and the bass has four 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, B♭maj7 is written B♭, D, F and A.
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.
B♭maj7 under a hand
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds B♭, F, A and D, which are the degrees 1 5 7 3 rather than the 1 3 5 7 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.
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds F, A, D and B♭, which are the degrees 5 7 3 1 rather than the 1 3 5 7 of the written chord. The lowest note is the 5 rather than the root, so this grip is in second inversion, written B♭maj7/F. It has the same notes as the root-position grip, but with F in the bass it sounds different.
Strummed from the lowest string to the highest, this grip sounds A, D and B♭, which are the degrees 7 3 1 rather than the 1 3 5 7 of the written chord. The lowest note is the 7 rather than the root, so this grip is in third inversion, written B♭maj7/A. It has the same notes as the root-position grip, but with A in the bass it sounds different. The 5 is left out altogether. A seventh chord gives up its fifth first, because the fifth adds the least to the chord's sound.
Three shapes for B♭maj7 on bass: B♭maj7, B♭maj7/F and B♭maj7/A.
Every grip here is B♭maj7, 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.
B♭, D, F and A on the whole neck
This diagram marks every B♭, D, F and A on the first fifteen frets of the 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 B♭maj7 comes from
B♭maj7 is a chord of D natural minor, F major, G natural minor and B♭ major.
A chord does not belong to a single key. Each major or natural minor key listed here contains every note of B♭maj7, which is why the same grip turns up in songs that otherwise have little in common.