F7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F7 — shell 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
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
F7 has 6 of them, on the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, strings 6-4-3 and strings 5-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, 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 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.