Beginner Guitar Chords Lesson – Learn the C7 Chord

The C7 Chord (also known as the Dominant C 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 several different ways to play it, but I will demonstrate the easiest way in the following post. The C7 Chord is found by first locating the 1(root note), 3 and 5 positions (C, E and G) of the  C Major Scale: C D E F G A B C, and then adding a flat 7 note. To locate the flat 7 note, we first find the 7th note of the C Major scale (B) and then go back a 1/2 step to the BFlat. So the notes of the C7 Chord are: C E Bflat C E .

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

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.

The video below will further demonstrate how to correctly play the C7 Chord. Enjoy!