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Seventh chords on guitar: 7, maj7, m7 and m7b5

Seventh chords are four-note chords: a triad with a seventh on top. You meet them in blues, rock, folk, country, soul, funk, jazz and a great deal of pop. Behind the one word hide four families, and confusing them is the most common chord-reading mistake there is. This page maps all four, then focuses on the one you will play most, the plain 7 of G7, E7 and A7.

The four seventh chord families

"Seventh" is not enough to name a chord. It depends on the triad underneath, major or minor, and on the seventh added, major or minor. Here are the four, all built on C:

Family Symbol Formula Notes Sound
Dominant seventh C7 1 3 5 b7 C E G Bb Tense, bluesy, wants to move
Major seventh Cmaj7 1 3 5 7 C E G B Soft, bright, at rest
Minor seventh Cm7 1 b3 5 b7 C Eb G Bb Minor, but rounder
Half-diminished Cm7b5 1 b3 b5 b7 C Eb Gb Bb Unstable, leads somewhere

On the neck, near the nut, they look like this: C7 x32310, Cmaj7 x32000, Cm7 x3131x, Cm7b5 x3434x. Each of the other three families has its own page with its shapes and its chords. The rest of this page is about the dominant 7.

How to read the symbols

Chord charts do not always write the same chord the same way:

  • C7: always the dominant seventh. Never anything else.
  • Cmaj7, CM7, CΔ or CΔ7: four ways to write the major seventh.
  • Cm7, Cmin7 or C-7: three ways to write the minor seventh.
  • Cm7b5 or Cø: the half-diminished chord.
The classic trap: C7 and Cmaj7 are not the same chord. The first has a minor seventh (B flat), the second a major seventh (B). One note apart, two opposite colors. And a 7 chord has a minor seventh without being a minor seventh chord: its third is still major.

The dominant 7: a major chord plus a minor seventh

Take a major chord and add the note a whole step below the octave. That is the dominant seventh, formula 1 3 5 b7. G7 is G, B, D and F: B is the major third, F the minor seventh.

Major chord Add the minor seventh Seventh chord
C E G Bb C7: C E G Bb
D F# A C D7: D F# A C
E G# B D E7: E G# B D
G B D F G7: G B D F

The tension comes from two of those notes: the major third and the minor seventh, B and F in G7, C# and G in A7, G# and D in E7. They form a tritone, and a tritone wants to resolve.

Open and movable dominant 7 shapes

Five open shapes cover a huge amount of music, and none needs a barre. Start with E7, A7 and D7.

E7 0 2 0 1 0 0 · 2 · 1 · · fingers
A7 x 0 2 0 2 0 · · 2 · 3 · fingers
D7 x x 0 2 1 2 · · · 2 1 3 fingers
G7 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 2 · · · 1 fingers
B7 x 2 1 2 0 2 · 2 1 3 · 4 fingers

When there is no open shape, move one. The E7 shape barred gives every dominant 7 with its root on the sixth string: F7 at the first fret, G7 at the third.

F7, E7 shape 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 fingers

The A7 shape does the same with the root on the fifth string: x24242 is B7 at the second fret, and one fret higher it becomes C7. To find each root quickly, learn the notes on the fretboard.

What a 7 chord does: V7 to I, and the blues

The classic job of a dominant seventh is to sit on the fifth degree of a key and lead home. That move is written V7 to I:

V7 Resolves to
G7C
A7D
E7A, or A minor
B7E, or E minor
C7F
D7G

The blues uses the same chords another way. In a twelve bar blues in E, all three chords are sevenths, E7, A7 and B7, and nobody expects them to resolve: the 7 is simply the sound of the style. So a 7 chord either pushes toward the next chord or sets the mood of a whole song.

The same pull comes in other flavors, all listed below: the 7sus4 delays the third, the 9 adds the ninth on top, and the 7#9 adds the sharp ninth, the crunchy chord of funk and blues rock.

Dominant seventh chords

Ninth chords

7sus4 chords

7#9 chords

7, maj7 or m7: which one to play?

  1. You are reading a chart: play what is written. C7, Cmaj7 and Cm7 are not interchangeable.
  2. You are simplifying a song: the plain triad, major or minor, is always correct. The seventh is a color, never an obligation.
  3. You are arranging: the 7 adds pull or a blues mood, the maj7 softens a stable major chord (often the I or the IV), the m7 rounds off a minor chord, and the m7b5 prepares a minor cadence. The chords in every key page shows which degree takes which seventh.

Learn them in this order: E7, A7 and D7 first; then G7, C7 and B7; then F7 and the movable shapes. After that, add the major seventh and minor seventh chords, and finally the half-diminished ones.

Frequently asked questions

What is a seventh chord?
A four-note chord: a triad plus a seventh. There are four common kinds: the dominant 7, the maj7, the m7 and the m7b5. Which one you get depends on whether the triad is major or minor and whether the seventh is major or minor.
What does the 7 in G7 mean?
A plain 7 always means the dominant seventh: a major chord plus a minor seventh, formula 1 3 5 b7. G7 is G, B, D and F. It never means the major seventh; that one is written maj7.
What is the difference between C7 and Cmaj7?
One note. C7 has B flat, a minor seventh, so it is tense and pulls toward F. Cmaj7 has B natural, a major seventh, so it is soft and stable. Swapping one for the other changes the music, so play what the chart says.
Why do dominant seventh chords sound tense?
Because they contain a tritone, the interval between the major third and the minor seventh. In G7 that is B and F. Those two notes want to move by a half step, B up to C and F down to E, which is exactly what happens when G7 resolves to C.
Which seventh chords should I learn first?
E7, A7 and D7: open, easy, and everywhere in blues and folk. Then G7, C7 and B7, which need more precision. Then F7 and the movable shapes.
Can I replace every major chord with a 7?
No. A dominant seventh adds a strong pull toward the next chord. Use it where that pull helps the progression, usually on the V chord, or everywhere in a blues, where the 7 is the sound of the style rather than a tension.
Yohann Abbou, guitar teacher and founder of Guitar Social Club

Who made this

Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris. He teaches adults, and the first thing he does with seventh chords is separate the four families, because most of the confusion comes from that single word. All the chord families are gathered on the guitar chords page.

More about Yohann on his page, and about why Guitar Social Club exists.