A Dominant 7 Guitar Chord Lesson

Learn how to Play the A7 Guitar Chord

We covered an easy beginner version of the A7 Guitar Chord on this site in the past.  In this post, we will look at some advanced voicings for the A Dominant 7th chord.

The A7 chord is a very popular one, especially in blues guitar. In order to find the notes that make up this chord, we need to look at the A Major Scale: A B C# D E F# G# A.  From this scale, we find the 1st, 3rd, 5th and flattened 7th positions (b7), or the notes A, C#, E and G.  The “b7” symbol means that we take the 7th position of the A Major scale (G#) and flatten it by 1/2 step, giving us our  “G”.  It is this “G” note that gives this chord its distinctive sound.

There are 6 advanced voicings of the A7 guitar chord below for your convenience.

Notes of the A7 Chord are: A, C#, E and G

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.