A7 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About A7 — drop 3 voicings
A7 is A, C#, E and G — A with the flat seventh added on top.
It sounds restless and pointed at something. The third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart and each moves by a semitone into the next chord; that is the engine of a cadence, and the whole vocabulary of the blues.
A7 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Adom7 or A dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play A7
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
A7 has 10 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C# in the bass, E in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x02020 — no barre and 3 open strings. 2 of the 9 shapes here sit in open position. 5 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02020 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| x02223 | open position | A, root position | G | barred |
| xx2223 | 2nd fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| 542223 | 2nd fret | A, root position | G | barred |
| 575655 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x07989 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | 1 open string |
| xx7989 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-12-10-x | 10th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-12-14-12-14-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 14 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of A7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Bb), the 9 (B), the #9 (B#), the #11 (D#), the b13 (F) and the 13 (F#).
How to use A7
A7 is the V of D, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into D.
Voice by voice, A7 → D. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In A7 | Moves | In D |
|---|---|---|
| A, the root | stays where it is | A, the fifth |
| C#, the major third | rises a semitone | D, the root |
| E, the fifth | falls a whole tone | D, the root |
| G, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | F#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of A7 belongs to D major (the V, the dominant) and B minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over A7
Every note of A7 is in A mixolydian, A lydian dominant and A half-whole diminished.
Chords near A7
Change one note of A7 and you have A (drop the flat seventh), Amaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Am7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Aadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), A6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or A7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
A7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On A7’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.