D7 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 D7 — drop 3 voicings
D7 is D, F#, A and C — D 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.
D7 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Ddom7 or D dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play D7
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.
D7 has 10 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: D in the bass, F# in the bass, A in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 xx0212 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0212 | open position | D, root position | F# | 1 open string |
| x5453x | 3rd fret | D, root position | D | all fretted |
| x57575 | 5th fret | D, root position | A | barred |
| xx7778 | 7th fret | A, 2nd inversion | C | barred |
| 10-9-7-7-7-8 | 7th fret | D, root position | C | barred |
| 10-12-10-11-10-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-14-13-14 | 12th fret | D, root position | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 14 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of D7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Eb), the 9 (E), the #9 (E#), the #11 (G#), the b13 (Bb) and the 13 (B).
How to use D7
D7 is the V of G, 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 G.
Voice by voice, D7 → G. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In D7 | Moves | In G |
|---|---|---|
| D, the root | stays where it is | D, the fifth |
| F#, the major third | rises a semitone | G, the root |
| A, the fifth | falls a whole tone | G, the root |
| C, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | B, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of D7 belongs to E minor (the ♭VII) and G major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over D7
Every note of D7 is in D mixolydian, D lydian dominant and D half-whole diminished.
Chords near D7
Change one note of D7 and you have D (drop the flat seventh), Dmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Dm7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Dadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), D6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or D7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
D7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On D7’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.