Bm7 Guitar Chord

In the following lesson, you will learn how to play the Bm7 guitar chord  (also known as B Minor 7, Bmin7).  This is an advanced lesson that will teach several advanced chord shapes (see the chord charts below). If you are interested in learning a beginner version of this chord, follow this link for an easier Bm7 chord shape.

To find the notes that make up this chord, we will need to first look at the B Major Scale: B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#.  From this scale, we will take the 1, b3, 5 and b7 steps, or the notes B, D, F# and A.  The “b3” symbol means that we take the 3rd step of this scale and flatten it by 1/2 step, giving us our “D”.   The “b7” symbol means that we take the 7th step of this scale and flatten it by 1/2 step giving us our “A”.

There are 3 chord diagrams below to get under your fingers.  All three are barre chords played on the 2nd and 7th frets.  Barre chords are challenging, depending on how much experience you have playing them.  If you find barre chords difficult, as so many guitarists do, check out this post I did a while back on how to play barre chord for beginners. This post includes a number of helpful videos and articles from around the web.

So the notes again of the B Minor 7 Chord are: B D F# A.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Video Demonstration