C♭7 Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukelele [C♭ Dominant 7th Chord] How to Play it

The C♭ dominant 7th chord (C♭7) is built from a root note (C♭), a major third (E♭), a perfect fifth (G♭) and a minor seventh (B♭♭):

C♭7 chord [Musical explanation]

The C♭ dominant seventh chord is a tetrad with formula 1 – 3 – 5 – ♭7. Therefore, to build it we need C♭ (1), E♭ (3), G♭ (5) and B♭♭ (♭7):

This is due to the fact that a dominant seventh chord is made up of 3 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the C♭7 chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that a major seventh chord is defined by:

Root (C♭) – Major Third (E♭) – Perfect Fifth (G♭) – Minor Seventh (B♭♭)

To sum up, in order to build the C♭7 chord we need to add the minor seventh (7th) to the C♭ major chord.

C♭7 Guitar Chord

The C♭7 chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the C♭7 on guitar.

Let’s start by analyzing the 2 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle) and 4 (pinky). In this case we have a barre chord, so we have to use as well the index finger (1) to press down the strings from 5 to 1.

Note by the way the number 2 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  C♭  G♭  B♭♭  E♭ G♭

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  ♭7  3 5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the C♭7 chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

Other ways to play the C dominant 7 guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the C♭7 chord in the following fretboard positions:

C♭7 chord inversions

The 3 inversions of the C♭ 7th chord are:

C♭7 Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the C♭7 uke chord diagram:

C♭7 Piano Chord

To play the C♭7 chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Third Inversión (C♭7/B♭♭)

Music scales in which the C♭ minor 7th chord can be found

• F♭ major scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F♭maj7 G♭m7 A♭m7 B♭♭maj7 C♭7 D♭m7 E♭m7♭5
• D♭ natural minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • D♭m7 E♭m7♭5 F♭maj7 G♭m7 A♭m7 B♭♭maj7 C♭7
• F♭ harmonic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F♭m(maj7) G♭m7♭5 A♭♭maj7#5 B♭♭m7 C♭7 D♭♭maj7 E♭dim7
• G♭ melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • G♭m(maj7) A♭m7 B♭♭maj7#5 C♭7 D♭7 E♭dim7 G♭♭m7♭5
• F♭ melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F♭m(maj7) G♭m7 A♭♭maj7#5 B♭♭7 C♭7 D♭dim7 E♭m7♭5

C♭7 Chord PDF

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