Ab7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ab7 — shell voicings
Ab7 is Ab, C, Eb and Gb — Ab 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.
Ab7 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | Gb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Abdom7 or Ab dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ab7
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Ab7 has 4 of them, on the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, strings 6-4-3 and strings 5-3-2, from the 3rd fret up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx6878 — no barre. None of the shapes for Ab7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1112 | 1st fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | Gb | barred |
| 431112 | 1st fret | Ab, root position | Gb | barred |
| 464544 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx6878 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-11-9-x | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x-11-13-11-13-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 5 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ab7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Bbb), the 9 (Bb), the #9 (B), the #11 (D), the b13 (Fb) and the 13 (F).
How to use Ab7
Ab7 is the V of Db, 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 Db.
In which keys. Every note of Ab7 belongs to C# major (the V, the dominant) and Bb minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over Ab7
Every note of Ab7 is in Ab mixolydian, Ab lydian dominant and Ab half-whole diminished.
Chords near Ab7
Change one note of Ab7 and you have Ab (drop the flat seventh), Abmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Abm7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Abadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), Ab6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or Ab7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
Ab7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Ab7’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.