D7 Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukelele – How to Play the Dominant seventh

The D dominant 7th chord (D7) is built from a root note (D), a major third (F#), a perfect fifth (A) and a minor seventh (C):

D7 chord [Musical explanation]

The D dominant seventh chord is a tetrad with formula 1 – 3 – 5 – ♭7. Therefore, to build it we need D (1), F# (3), A (5) and C (♭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 D7 chord we obtain that:

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

Root (D) – Major Third (F#) – Perfect Fifth (A) – Minor Seventh (C)

To sum up, in order to build the D7 chord we need to add the minor seventh (7th) to the D major chord.

D7 Guitar Chord

The D7 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 D7 on guitar.

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 3 (G), 2 (B) and 1(E) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle), 1 (index) and 3 (ring finger).

Note by the way the number 1 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 X  D  A  C  F#

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  ♭7 3

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the D7 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 D dominant 7 guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the D7 chord in the following fretboard positions:

D7 chord inversions

The 3 inversions of the D 7th chord are:

D7 Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the D7 uke chord diagram:

D7 Piano Chord

To play the D7 chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Third Inversión (D7/C)

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

• G major scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • Gmaj7 Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 Em7 G♭m7b5
• E natural minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • Em7 G♭m7b5 Gmaj7 Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7
• G harmonic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • Gm(maj7) Am7♭5 B♭maj7#5 Cm7 D7 E♭maj7 G♭dim7
• A melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • Am(maj7) Bm7 Cmaj7#5 D7 E7 Gbdim7 A♭m7♭5
• G melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • Gm(maj7) Am7 B♭maj7#5 C7 D7 Edim7 Gbm7♭5

D7 Chord PDF

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