How to play Gm7 (G m7) on Ukulele

Gm7 is the G m7 chord. It is built from 4 notes — G, A#, D and F — which sit at the root, minor third, perfect fifth and minor seventh above the root G. Written as a formula that is 1P – 3m – 5P – 7m. Those intervals, not the note names, are what give the chord its character: move all of them to a different root and you still hear a m7 chord.

Gm7 on ukulele is an open shape — 1 string rings open while 3 are fretted, the shape spans 2 frets. Open strings do a lot of the work here, which is why this shape sounds fuller than the effort it takes. Arch your fingers so each one lands on its fingertip — a finger leaning flat will deaden the open string next to it, and a single muted string is the most common reason a beginner's chord sounds wrong when the fingering is in fact correct.

The interval that defines this chord is the minor third between G and A#. Lowering the third by one semitone is the entire difference between G major and G minor, and it is the reason the chord reads as darker or sadder to most listeners. The added minor seventh stops the chord from sounding like a resting place — it leans forward and wants to resolve, which is exactly why it turns up at the end of a phrase rather than the start.

Gm7 belongs to 3 major keys, including F major, where it is the ii chord, Bb major, where it is the vi chord and Eb major, where it is the iii chord. That is the practical reason to learn it: a chord that is diatonic to several keys turns up constantly, and knowing which degree it occupies tells you what tends to come next. A ii chord in F major most often moves toward the tonic, so practising Gm7 in the context of F will teach you more than practising it in isolation.