Guitar Chord Progression – Adding the Dominant 7th
Hi, welcome back to the Beginner Guitar Lessons blog. This is the last part of the guitar chord progression topic. In the first part you have learned the most common chords found in the major songs, which we known as I (root), IV and V chords. If you know these chords then you can play simple songs as well as bluegrass songs and rock and roll songs because they mostly use this chord progression.
In the second part of the guitar chord progression we learned to add minor chords to the chord progression above. Just remember that we need to add IIm, IIIm and VIm.
The other common chords found is what we call the dominant 7th chords. To build this dominant 7th chord you have to look back to the W – W – H – W – W – W – H pattern. Let’s take C as the root chord:
The dominant 7th note is added to the fifth (V) chord – G in this case – to give a strong feel or indication when the chord in the song is going to change from the V chord back to the I (root) chord. What is the dominant 7th chord by the way? Let us shift G from the chart above to the first position:
To form a natural G major scale you need the first (G), third (B) and fifth (D) notes only but if you want G7 then you have to add the seventh note which is F.
Please note that G7 and C chords share EXACTLY the same notes: C – D – E – F – G – A – B but G and G7 don’t. Have a look at what a natural G major chord has:
Yes, they don’t agree on the 7th note: If you play notes or melody in G you have F# as the 7th note but if you play G7 chord then you have F as the 7th note. Just remember, to form a dominant seventh chord you have use W – W – H – W – W – H – W instead of W – W – H – W – W – W – H pattern.
You will see this chord often in blues or rock and roll songs.
OK, I think I give you enough confussion already 
Time for me to stop now. Don’t give up, practice this basic guitar chord progression everyday.
To Your Guitar Success,
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin
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