C7 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C7 — 2nd inversion
C7 is C, E, G and Bb — C with the flat seventh added on top.
It sounds restless and pointed at something. The V of a key, and the whole vocabulary of the blues, where even the tonic is one of these.
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
C7 notes and formula
| C | E | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Also written Cdom7 or C dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C7
C7 in 2nd inversion puts G in the bass instead of C, the 5th of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of C7’s 7 common shapes does this:xx5556
Play C7 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the b9 (Db), the 9 (D), the #9 (D#), the #11 (F#), the b13 (Ab) or the 13 (A).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x32310, open position, C, root position, top note E, 1 open string
- x35353, 3rd fret, C, root position, top note G, barred
- xx5556, 5th fret, G, 2nd inversion, top note Bb, barred
- 875556, 5th fret, C, root position, top note Bb, barred
- 8-10-8-9-8-8, 8th fret, C, root position, top note C, barred
- x-x-10-12-11-12, 10th fret, C, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-15-14-15-13-x, 13th fret, C, root position, top note C, all fretted
How to use C7
C7 is the V of F, 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 F.
In a phrase:Gm7→C7→Fmaj7— the ii–V–I of F.
Voice by voice, C7 → F. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In C7 | Moves | In F |
|---|---|---|
| C, the root | stays where it is | C, the fifth |
| E, the major third | rises a semitone | F, the root |
| G, the fifth | falls a whole tone | F, the root |
| Bb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of C7 belongs to D minor (the ♭VII) and F major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over C7
Every note of C7 is in C mixolydian, C lydian dominant and C half-whole diminished.
Chords near C7
Change one note of C7 and you have C (drop the flat seventh), Cmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), Cm7 (the major third becomes the minor third), Cadd9 (the flat seventh becomes the ninth), C6 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth) or C7sus4 (the major third becomes the fourth).
C7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.