F7 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F7 — open string voicings
F7 is F, A, C and Eb — F 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.
F7 notes and formula
| F | A | C | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Fdom7 or F dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F7
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.
F7 has 4 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from the 3rd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx3545 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for F7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 5 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 131211 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3545 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x8786x | 6th fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-8-10-8-10-8 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-10-10-11 | 10th fret | C, 2nd inversion | Eb | barred |
| 13-12-10-10-10-11 | 10th fret | F, root position | Eb | barred |
| 13-15-13-14-13-13 | 13th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Gb), the 9 (G), the #9 (G#), the #11 (B), the b13 (Db) and the 13 (D).
How to use F7
F7 is the V of Bb, 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 Bb.
Voice by voice, F7 → Bb. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In F7 | Moves | In Bb |
|---|---|---|
| F, the root | stays where it is | F, the fifth |
| A, the major third | rises a semitone | Bb, the root |
| C, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Bb, the root |
| Eb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | D, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of F7 belongs to G minor (the ♭VII) and Bb major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over F7
Every note of F7 is in F mixolydian, F lydian dominant and F half-whole diminished.
Chords near F7
Change one note of F7 and you have F (drop the flat seventh), Fmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Fm7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Fadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), F6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or F7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
F7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On F7’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.