Fm7 Guitar Chord: 6 Essential Voicings

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Want to learn the Fm7 guitar chord? You’ve come to the right place!

In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• 6 essential ways to play the Fm7 guitar chord.
• 5 must-know chord progressions that will enhance your musicality.
• The no1 barre chord secret that will make your chords sound amazing.

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The two most common way to play the Fm7 are:

• The ‘Em7 shaped barre chord’
• The ‘Am7 shaped barre chord’

Here are the chord boxes for both of these chords.

Fm7 Guitar Chord (Em7 Shape)

• Barre your first finger across all of the strings on the 1st fret.
• Place your 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Strum all the strings.

Fm7 Guitar Chord (Am7 Shape)

• Barre your 1st finger across from the A string (5th string) to the high E string (1st string) on the 7th fret.
• Place your 3rd finger on the 10th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 9th fret of the B string. (2nd string.)

We refer to these chords as the ‘Em7 shape’ and ‘Am7 shape’ because these are the chord shapes these barre chords are based on.

New to barre chords? Check out this article: How To Play Barre Chords

Barre chords aren’t easy, so if you’re a beginner you should steer clear and stick to ordinary chords.

If you’re struggling a bit with these two voicings, there are some slightly simpler versions of them we can try.

Fm7 Guitar Chord (Easy Version)

Here is a simplified version of the ‘Em7 shaped barre chord’:

Here, we’re still barring the chord, but we’re not having to barre all six strings. This is slightly easier as you don’t have to reach over to any other notes on the fret board.

If you still find this chord hard, try fretting each note with each finger.

You could also try this cool chord voicing:

To play this chord:

• Place your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the low E string. (6th string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 1st fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 1st fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 1st fret of the B string. (2nd string.)

The principle here is the same ie. we’ve simplified the ‘Em7 shaped barre chord’, but kept the lowest note in and left out the highest.

Let’s check out some easier verisons of the ‘Am7 barre shape’.

Fm7 Guitar Chord (Easy Am7 Shape)

• Place your 1st finger on the 8th fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 8th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 9th fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 8th fret of the high E string. (1st string.)

If you find this chord difficult, try and think of it as a D shape on the 8th fret with an extra note added on the 8th fret of the A string. (5th string.)

Just remember that you’re putting this D shape together using your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers rather than your 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers.

Fm7 Guitar Chord (Dm7 Shape)

This voicing is basically the open position Dm7 guitar chord but moved up by three frets.

Unlike the Em7 shape and the Am7 shape though, it doesn’t require a barre.

Which version of the Fm7 guitar chord should you use?

It can depend on a number of things:

• Which do you find easier?
• Which sounds best for the song you’re playing?
• Which is easiest to change to from the other chords in the song?

It’s best to have a go at all the different voicings. Try and find out which one is easiest for you.

Ideally you want to eventually reach a stage where you can play a number of different Fm7 guitar chords to suit a variety of different songs.

The Advantages of Barre Chords

The non-barred versions of the Fm7 guitar chord are easier to play, but you will likely find that if the song you’re learning has an Fm7 guitar chord in it then the other chords are going to be chords such as Ab, Db, Eb, Bb and so on. These chords are usuaully played as barre chords.

For this reason, you must learn the Fm7 barre chord. Although barre chords are tough, once you can play them, changing one barre chord to the other can be a lot easier than changing between non-barre chords.

Note: if you’re a beginner and you’ve encountered a song with chords like Fm7, Ab, Db etc, you will be better off using a capo and playing the song using simpler open position shapes. To learn more about capos, go here: How To Use A Capo

The great thing about barre chords is that, once you know a chord like the Fm7 guitar chord, you instantly know how to play eleven other minor 7 guitar chords.

This is because this shape is movable.

For example, if you encounter a song that uses F#m7, all you have to do is move your Fm7 guitar chord up one fret.

This technique works fantastically on the low E string (6th string) and A string. (5th string.)

Here is a handy diagram that shows you the root notes on the low E string. You can use this diagram to move the ‘Em7 shape barre chord’ around the fret board.

Here is a handy diagram that shows you the root notes on the A string. (5th string.) You can use this diagram to move the ‘Am7 shape barre chord’ around the fret board.

This is possible because of the ‘musical alphabet’.

If you want to learn more about the musical alphabet, check out this article: Guitar Notes & The Musical Alphabet

What’s the difference between Fm7 and Fm?

The difference between an Fm7 guitar chord and a normal Fm guitar chord is that Fm7 has an Eb note added to it.

Here are the notes in a Fm chord:

• F (Root)
• Ab (Minor 3rd)
• C (5th)

Here are the notes in a Fm7 chord:

• F (Root)
• Ab (Minor 3rd)
• C (5th)
• Eb (Flattened 7th)

Can you see how the Fm7 guitar chord has an Eb added to it?

Soundwise, what’s the difference?

The simplest way to describe the difference in sound is that the Fm7 guitar chord sounds a bit ‘grander’.

It’s a bigger chord this is because it has an extra note in it.

Minor 7 chords are very popular in styles of music such as jazz, funk and soul.

Can the Fm7 and Fm be used interchangeably?

Usually yes, this can depend on the sound you’re going for though.

For some styles of music such as jazz, funk and soul, an ordinary Fm might sound a bit plain.

In other cases though, an Fm7 chord might sound a bit much. Not all styles of music require big, grand sounding chords.

More often than not however, the two chords can be used fairly interchangeably.

The best way to see if one chord will work in place of the other is to try it and see how it sounds.

Tips for practicing the Fm7 guitar chord

Perhaps the most straight forward way to practice the Fm7 guitar chord is to pick a song with Fm7 in it and have a go at learning it.

Let’s take a look at some common chord progressions which feature the Fm7 guitar chord.

Changing between Fm7 and Abmaj7 

To turn our one finger Fm7 guitar chord into an Abmaj7, all we have to do is reach over with our 4th finger and press the high E string down at the 1st fret.

This is a fairly simple change and it has a nice jazzy sound to it.

Try the two chords in a sequence:

Fm7         | Abmaj7        | Fm7         | Abmaj7          |

You could also try adding an Eb7 chord.

The Eb7 Chord

We can keep the barre at the 1st fret on when we change to and from this chord.

Try this sequence:

Fm7         | Eb7         | Abmaj7        | Fm7         |

If you’re at a stage where you feel comfortable playing the full ‘Em7 shaped barre chord’ of Fm7, you could try changing between Fm7 and Bb7.

Note how here, we’re keeping the barre at the 1st fret and simply changing the shape after it.

Try them in a sequence such as this:

Fm7       | Bb7        | Fm7        | Bb7        |

As for the ‘Am7 shaped barre chord’, you could try switching between Fm7 and Ab.

Like this:

You’ll notice here that all we have to do to change between Fm7 and Ab is add our little finger to the chord, on the A string at 11th fret.

This can be a bit of a stretch if you’re not used to it, but give it a go.

Try this change in a sequence such as:

Fm7        | Ab         | Fm7        | Ab          |

Be careful when playing these chords, make sure that you don’t strum the low E string. (6th string.) It will clash horribly.