How to play the G Dominant 7th chord on guitar
G7 is the chord that pulls a progression back home to C. That pull — the reason it feels unfinished on its own — is the single most useful thing to hear in early music theory, and G7 is the easiest place to hear it.
G Dominant 7th is a dominant seventh: the G triad with a flattened seventh on top — G, B, D, F. That added note is what gives it its bluesy, unfinished pull.
Finger it one string at a time
- low E string: fret 3 with your ring finger.
- A string: fret 2 with your middle finger.
- D string: play it open.
- G string: play it open.
- B string: play it open.
- high E string: fret 1 with your index finger.
Like a G major but stretched out. The 1st string gives it that bluesy tension.
What makes this shape awkward
- The shape spans 3 frets, so your hand has to stretch rather than sit in one position. Bring your thumb down behind the neck to open the gap between your fingers.
- 3 strings ring open, which is what gives this shape its sustain — but it also means any finger leaning against a neighbouring string will deaden it. Arch your knuckles.
Where you'll use it
G7 appears in 3 of the play-along progressions in RiffRoute. These are the actual sequences it sits in:
- Amber Turnaround (Jazz Standard, 120 BPM) —
Am → D7 → G7 → C7 - Silk & Cedar (Neo-Soul, 80 BPM) —
Dm → G7 → C → Am - Coastal Breeze (Bossa Nova, 105 BPM) —
C → A7 → Dm → G7
Chords it's usually played with
In the progressions that use G7, these turn up alongside it most often — learning them together is more useful than learning G7 alone.
Hear it and check yourself
Reading a diagram only gets you so far — the part that decides whether G7 sounds right is whether every string rings cleanly. RiffRoute plays the chord back, listens while you strum it, and tells you which string is buzzing.