B7 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About B7 — open string voicings
B7 is B, D#, F# and A — B 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.
B7 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Bdom7 or B dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play B7
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
B7 has 4 of them, on the bottom four strings, strings 6-5-4-3-2 and the middle four strings, from the 4th fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, D# in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x-x-9-11-10-11 — no barre. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21202 | open position | B, root position | F# | barred |
| x24242 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| xx4445 | 4th fret | F#, 2nd inversion | A | barred |
| 764445 | 4th fret | B, root position | A | barred |
| 797877 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-11-10-11 | 9th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-14-12-x | 12th fret | B, root position | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of B7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (C), the 9 (C#), the #9 (C##), the #11 (E#), the b13 (G) and the 13 (G#).
How to use B7
B7 is the V of E, 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 E.
Voice by voice, B7 → E. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In B7 | Moves | In E |
|---|---|---|
| B, the root | stays where it is | B, the fifth |
| D#, the major third | rises a semitone | E, the root |
| F#, the fifth | falls a whole tone | E, the root |
| A, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of B7 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VII) and E major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over B7
Every note of B7 is in B mixolydian, B lydian dominant and B half-whole diminished.
Chords near B7
Change one note of B7 and you have B (drop the flat seventh), Bmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Bm7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Badd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), B6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or B7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
B7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On B7’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.