F7 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 F7 — root position
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
F7 in root position puts F in the bass, which is the chord as it is spelled: the note it is named after underneath everything else.
6 of F7’s 7 common shapes do this: 131211, xx3545, x8786x, x-8-10-8-10-8, 13-12-10-10-10-11, 13-15-13-14-13-13.
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, 9 drop 3 and 4 open string 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.