How to play the open position Am chord and CAGED Am shape
The Am is a really easy chord to fret as well as turning it into a movable shape, maybe even the easiest one out of all CAGED shapes when it comes to finger placement.
Below, displayed as an open position chord and as a barre chord shape, using a Chordcus image. There is no debate here about how to fret it, it’s all very self-explanatory.
When we turn the Am chord into a moveable, Am shape, we barre with the index finger so the top string is fretted.
As an alternative, you can mute that top string with the flesh of the index finger and only play strings 2-5.
The intervals are root, 5th, root, m3rd, and if you play the top string, another 5th.
A great exercise is to play this Am shape using the cycle of 4th. Start on Am, the next chord is a Dm, then Gm, Cm, Fm, Bbm, Ebm, Abm, Dbm, Gbm, Bm, Em.
The next level of this exercise would be to play the Am-shaped chord on strings 1-3, again, around the cycle of 4th.
You could also play strings 2-4, now the root is in the middle of the shape. This is still an Am chord, we’re just using what pianists call the 2nd inversion because the order is 5th, root, m3rd.
When playing this around the cycle of 4th, you have to visualize that root in the middle of the shape. In the SEPR, you get video lessons on how to do all this.
Am chord extensions
Let’s look at extending this Am chord. These are all the possible Am-shaped chords if you can see the intervals surrounding the shape.
- Am chord (root, 5th, root, m3rd, 5th)
- Amadd9 (root, 5th, 9, m3rd)
- Am6 (root, root, m3rd, 6)
- Am7 (root, 5th, b7, m3rd, 5th)
- Am7b5 (root, b5, b7, m3rd)
- Adim7 (root, b5, bb7, m3rd)
- Ammaj7 (root, 5, 7, m3rd)
- Am11 (root, 4/11, b7, m3rd)
To learn these chords, it is not enough to just memorize them and perhaps practice using the cycle of 4th as described above, although it is a good start.
Practising exercises won’t be enough, you must also experience them as you play real songs. You could even try extending chords in songs, even if the chords are not extended on the original recording.
A great Am7 is found in Bill Withers’s Ain’t No Sunshine. In One More Cup Of Coffee by Bob Dylan, we play an Amadd9, although we do it in a different chord shape…
In Cannonball by Damien Rice, for guitar 2, we play Amadd9 in the open position using a capo on fret 1.
In The Beatles Blackbird, we’re flirting with Am-shaped dim7 chords. In Papa Ain’t Salty by T-Bone Walker, you get a great substitution chord lick using the Am-shaped m7b5 chord.
Building scales and arpeggios around the Am chord/shape
Let’s build arpeggios and modes using the Am-shaped chord as our framework.
The Am7-shaped arpeggio contains: Root, m3rd, 5th, b7, root, m3rd, 5th, and the top note is a b7.
Add a 4th to these notes and we have a Minor Pentatonic.
Keep all those notes, add the 2nd and the b6 and you get Aeolian.
Lower the 2 to a b2, keep that b6 as well and you get Phrygian.
Minor Pentatonic, add 2 and 6 gives us Dorian.
As you can see, as long as we know the Am shape and the intervals around it, we can build any chord, arpeggio, or mode.
We have to combine our knowledge of what a chord or mode is, seen as intervals, with how they’re laid out around the Am shape. There are exercises for this in the SEPR.
Here’s a diagram covering all intervals you need to play each arpeggio and scale. These are the same for all minor CAGED shapes!
The Am Chord | Related Pages
Guitar chords
You can learn how to build all minor and major guitar chords using the so-called CAGED system.
This is the foundation upon which we learn to extend chords and build arpeggios and modes as well.
The A chord
The A chord may be your first hurdle as a beginner, how do you play all those notes over five strings?
The answer lies within understanding how to play fractions of a chord, instead of the full shape.
Beginner Acoustic
This collection of beginner acoustic tunes will teach you how to arrange for one acoustic guitar, as well as how to create a supporting part.
Playing songs will help you with switching between open-position chords and give you the context you need to understand how music works theoretically.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about the Am chord and CAGED shapes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
