Am

How to play the A Minor Chord on your piano or keyboard

From the chord symbol Am we get the following information:

• The Am chord has the note A as root note

• The Am chord is a 3-note chord (a triad)

• The Am chord is a minor chord

Because Am is a 3-note chord it also has 3 inversions:

• Root inversion

• 1st. inversion

• 2nd. inversion

Am chord – Root inversion (basic inversion) looks like this: A – C – E

Am chord – 1st. inversion (root note at the top of the chord): C – E – A

Am chord – 2nd. inversion (root note in the middle of the chord): E – A – C

Am chord – fingering:

Root inversion:

Finger

1

3

5

Note

A

C

E

1st. inversion:

Finger

1

2

5

Note

C

E

A

2nd. inversion:

Finger

1

3

5

Note

E

A

C

Am chord – Closely related scales and harmonic functions:

The Am chord is the 1st. step in the Am minor scale

Step

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Chord

Bm(b5)

C

Dm

Em

F

G

The Am chord is the 4th. step in the E minor scale

Step

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Chord

Em

F#m(b5)

G

Bm

C

D

The Am chord is the 5th. step in the D minor scale

Step

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Chord

Dm

Em(b5)

F

G

Bb

C

The Am chord is the 6th. step in the C major scale

Step

1

2

3

4

5

7

Chord

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Bm(b5)