slash chord · A root

Am/G chord

  1. G♭7
  2. A1
  3. E5
  4. A1
  5. C♭3
  6. E5
PositionOpen position
Am/G chord diagram4231Am/G
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Recorded strum
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The A minor over G chord is built from the notes G, A, E, A, C, E. It turns up 4 times in the 80 songs on this site, including Ain't No Sunshine and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Difficulty Beginneropen positionbeginneressentialinversion1 positionIn 2 songs

By Chiye · Updated

What is the Am/G chord?

The Am/G chord (A minor over G) is a slash chord built from six notes: G, A, E, A, C, E — the 1–♭3–5 of the A scale, 3 semitones and 7 semitones above the root. On guitar it is most often played in open position (3-0-2-2-1-0) with 4 fingers while 2 strings ring open. It is rated beginner — most players learn it in their first weeks. The same triad with a different note placed in the bass, so the chord keeps its identity while the lowest voice walks underneath it. It is one of the most-used chords in this site's library: across the 80 song sheets charted here, Am/G appears 4 times in 2 songs, most often in the key of Am, and the chord it most often moves to is F. Below you will find step-by-step fingering, audio of every shape, and the real progressions this chord lives inside.

How do you play the Am/G chord on guitar?

Open position — the easiest version of Am/G on the guitar.

Am/Gfrets 3-0-2-2-1-0
  1. Press the low E string at fret 3 with your pinky finger.
  2. Press the D string at fret 2 with your middle finger.
  3. Press the G string at fret 2 with your ring finger.
  4. Press the B string at fret 1 with your index finger.
  5. Strum all six strings and let every one ring.
If it will not ring yet

If it buzzes, the usual cause is a fingertip sitting in the middle of the fret space instead of just behind the wire. Move the whole hand a few millimetres toward the bridge and the buzz usually disappears without any extra pressure. 3-0-2-2-1-0

How do you make Am/G sound clean?

The mistake everyone makes

Am/G needs the low E fretted at the 3rd fret while Am keeps it muted — that switch is the lesson.

The drill that fixes it

Am → Am/G → F: a descending bass line under a static chord.

In real songs

What songs use the Am/G chord?

chord changes
4
songs
2
common keys
Am

Across the 80 chord sheets on this site, Am/G appears 4 times in 2 songs — most often in the key of Am.

Browse all 2 song sheets that use the Am/G chord →

Chord flow

What chord comes after Am/G?

Most common beforeAm4×
Am/G
Most common afterF3×

Every number here is a count from the progressions in our song sheets, not a generalisation: 1560 chord changes are behind these figures.

After Am/G, songs go to

  1. F3×
  2. Em1×

Am/G arrives from

  1. Am4×

Three-chord moves

Three-chord moves are where a chord really shows its character. These are the ones that actually happen in this library, counted from the sheets:

Am/G → F → G6×Am/G → Em → Dm2×

The theory behind Am/G

Am/G is spelled G – A – E – A – C – E — the 1 – 3 – 5 of the A scale, which is the root plus 4 semitones, 7 semitones. The same triad with a different note placed in the bass, so the chord keeps its identity while the lowest voice walks underneath it.

The letter after the slash is a bass note, not a new chord. Am/G is the same Am shape with one low string fretted differently, which is how a bass line walks underneath a chord that is not moving.

What key is the Am/G chord in?

Am/G is the A minor triad with G in the bass, so it takes the same three slots as the plain minor chord: the i in A minor, the ii in G major and the vi in C major.

iin A minor

the home chord of the minor key

iiin G major

the gentle predominant — often before the V

viin C major

the relative minor — the major key’s shadow

Am/G on other instruments

Piano

G – A – E – A – C – E — all white keys, so you can find the shape by counting up from C.

Take it to the practice room
A minor over G chord diagram for guitar — Am/G fingering chart with notes G, A, E, A, C, E, open position
Every Am/G shape on this page condensed into one page you can download: the open-or-barre fingering, where it sits on the neck, and the notes it contains.Download the card

Am/G chord FAQ

What notes are in an Am/G chord?
G, A, E, A, C, E — the 1–3–5 of the A scale, or the root plus 4 semitones, 7 semitones. The same triad with a different note placed in the bass, so the chord keeps its identity while the lowest voice walks underneath it.
Is Am/G a hard chord to play?
Am/G is rated beginner on this site. Only 4 strings need a finger — the other 2 ring open. Holding the shape is easy; the practice goes into arriving on it in time and leaving it cleanly.
Which songs use the Am/G chord?
4 of the chord changes in our 80-song library use Am/G, across 2 songs: Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers, key of Am); While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles, key of Am).
What chord usually follows Am/G?
In our library Am/G moves most often to F (3 times), then Em (1 times). Those figures were counted across every section of every song sheet on this site.
Why is there no separate page for every Am/G-type chord?
Chords like Am/G have real search demand, so they get their own page. The rarer shapes in the same family live together on the slash chords and inversions page, where they can be compared side by side — that is more useful than dozens of near-identical pages.