Play the F7 Guitar Chord with Our Interactive Trainer
F7, the F dominant seventh chord, contains F, A, C and Eb. No open string appears in any of its 11 voicings, and four of them are barres.
Because F7 is the V7 chord in Bb major, it often precedes Bb. The Eb is the flat seventh, a whole step below the root. Anything you play over it can draw on the F Mixolydian scale. The family of ninth chords adds one more colour, as the ninth chords page explains.
Press play on the fretboard and listen to F7 strummed, then picked note by note as an arpeggio.
F dominant 7th guitar chord is also written as F7, Fdom7 or Fdom.
Notes in the F 7 chord:
Tones of the Dominant Seventh chord:
Formula: 1 3 5 b7
F 7 Chord Interactive Fretboard
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Go to the full guitar chords tutorial.
F 7 Guitar Chord Diagrams
Position 1 Barre Movable
Finger Positions
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the low E, D and high E strings at the same time
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the G string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 3 of the A string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 4 of the B string
Position 2 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the high E string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 6 of the B string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 7 of the D string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 8 of the A string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 8 of the G string
Position 3 Barre Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 8 of the A, G and high E strings at the same time
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 10 of the D string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 10 of the B string
Position 4 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the A string
- Mute the B string
- Mute the high E string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the low E string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 1 of the D string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 2 of the G string
Position 5 Barre Movable
Finger Positions
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the low E, D, B and high E strings at the same time
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the G string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 3 of the A string
Position 6 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the A string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 1 of the high E string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 2 of the G string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 3 of the D string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 4 of the B string
Position 7 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the A string
- Mute the D string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 4 of the B string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 5 of the G string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the high E string
Position 8 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the B string
- Mute the high E string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 7 of the D string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 8 of the A string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 8 of the G string
Position 9 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the B string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 7 of the D string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 8 of the A string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 8 of the G string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 8 of the high E string
Position 10 Barre Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the B string
- Mute the high E string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 8 of the A and G strings at the same time
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 10 of the D string
Position 11 Movable
Finger Positions
- Mute the low E string
- Mute the A string
- Place your index finger (1) on the fret 3 of the D string
- Place your middle finger (2) on the fret 4 of the B string
- Place your ring finger (3) on the fret 5 of the G string
- Place your pinky finger (4) on the fret 5 of the high E string
Find more shapes in our all guitar chords online library. If you
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Play This Chord With Other Roots
C 7 | D 7 | E 7 | F 7 | G 7 | A 7 | B 7 | C#7 | D#7 | F#7 | G#7 | A#7 | Ab7 | Bb7 | Db7 | Eb7 | Gb7
F7 Chord Tutorial
Once again before we practice some different positions for F7 let’s take a look at what notes make this chord up.
Remember the notes for the F major scale are:
F G A Bb C D E
An F major triad or chord is made up of the root , major third , and fifth note of that scale, thus F major is:
F A C
Now an F7 is otherwise known as a dominant seventh , and to make a dominant seventh chord we use the formula; root, major third, fifth, and minor seventh.
So the F7 chord will be made up of the notes:
F A C Eb
As mentioned before there are multiple seventh chords that exist and the dominant seventh is the most important of all.
Where to use F7 dominant chord
The main function of the dominant seventh is to lead up to a tonic resolution.
For example, one very common place you will find dominant sevenths is in blues music and the seventh is often played right before the root or tonic chord.
The dominant seventh is often used in rock n roll, pop, and blues.
Try playing the progression:
Bb Eb F Bb
Now play:
Bb Eb F7 Bb
you will notice how different it sounds.
For experimenting further with chord sequences, you might find useful our chord progression generator tool
Keys with the F7 chord
The most common keys we will find with the F7 chord is the Keys of Bb, C, and F.
However you will also potentially find it in some more random places depending on where the songwriter was looking for some tension leading to resolution.
You will not see F7 as often as other sevenths, unless you are playing blues in the Key of C, and then you will have plenty of F7’s.
Chords in the key of Bb major
| Key | I | ii | iii | IV | V | vi | vii |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bb | Bb | Cm | Dm | Eb | F | Gm | Am/b5 |
Chords in the key of F major
| Key | I | ii | iii | IV | V | vi | vii |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | F | Gm | Am | Bb | C | Dm | Em/b5 |
Songs with the F7 guitar chord
- The old time tune " Lazy Bones" by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer uses F7 along with a few other dominant seventh notes.
- "Moon River" also uses a ton of sevenths including F7.
It is chord often seen in pop and jazz standards and of course in lots of blues tunes.
How to play the F7 chord on the guitar
The picture below shows the F7 tones on the guitar fretboard:
Using the tones above we can come up with some of the more popular versions of how to play the F7 chord. Usually when we play a chord we want the root note (here F) to be the lowest played bass note.
Sometimes we will find a chord shape where that isn’t the case, which means the chord is an inversion.
If the lowest note is A, C, or Eb instead of the F than that is an inversion .
The most common position for F7 is the barred E7 chord .
A regular E7 is 020100 if we barre it and move it up one position we get 131211 :
If you are not yet comfortable with barre chords another way to play F7 is XX3241 .
A three string version of F7 is X878XX , a rootless three string version is XXX545 (there is no F in that position just C, Eb, and A).
And a few complicated F7 chord shapes are 131241 (which is a tough barre chord) and 1X12XX which may be hard for people who aren’t that good at muting strings.
Created by
Giancarlo is a musician (teaching guitar since 2000), software engineer, AI consultant and published researcher
FAQ
What notes are in F7?
F, A, C and Eb. It is an F major triad plus the minor seventh Eb, which sits a whole step under F.
F7 is the V7 chord of which key?
Bb major. F is the fifth degree of Bb major, and the Eb in the chord is its fourth degree, so F7 resolves to Bb.
How many ways can I play F dominant seventh?
There are 11 voicings, from fret 1 to fret 10. Four are barre voicings and none uses an open string.
Which scale fits the F7 chord?
F Mixolydian is F, G, A, Bb, C, D and Eb. It contains all four chord tones, with Eb replacing the E of F major.
How does F7 differ from an F major triad?
The triad has F, A and C only. F7 adds Eb, the minor seventh, which turns the stable major sound into a dominant one that wants to move.
