Basic Guitar Chords – The E7 Guitar Chord

The E7 Chord (also known as a Dominant E 7th Chord) is often referred to as a Blues chord. Once you learn to play it, you will understand why. It just has a real bluesy sound to it. It is definitely one of the easiest beginner chords to learn how to play. There are a several different ways to play it, but I will demonstrate the easiest way in the following post.

The E7 Chord is found by first locating the 1, 3 and 5 (E, G# and B) of the E Major Scale: E  F# G# A B C# D# E, and then adding a flat 7 note. To locate the flat 7 note, we first find the 7th note of the E Major scale (D#) and then go back a 1/2 step to the D.

So the notes of the E7 Chord are: E  G# B

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tip: Be sure that you are pressing down on the string hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

E7 Chord Video

The video below will further demonstrate how to correctly play the E7 Chord.  It also demonstrates how to play some variations of this chord