C7 chord guitar diagrams, finger position charts and photos. Everything you need to know to play a C7 chord on your guitar.
C7 Chord Guitar Finger Position Diagrams
The following diagrams show you how to play an C7 chord in several fretboard positions. Open position and movable barre chord shapes are shown.
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Open Position C7 Chord Shape
This is one of the most common ways of playing a C7 guitar chord. Finger position numbers are shown. The photo below the diagram shows the chord being played.
C7 Barre / Movable Chord Shapes
Below you’ll find two other ways of playing a C7 guitar chord. They’re both ‘barre chords’–sometimes known as a bar chords–in which the first finger is placed over the strings to hold down the notes on more than one string.
The first C7 chord is based on the open position A7 chord, but played 3 frets higher with a barre.
The second shape is based on the open position E7 chord.
Dominant Seventh Chords
The full name for a C7 chord is ‘C seventh’ (or, to be even more precise, C dominant seventh).
Seventh chords contain 4 notes (in guitar chords each note may appear more than once in different octaves).
The notes are: The root note, the major third, the fifth, and the minor 7th.
The first three notes are the same as those in a major chord. The addition of the minor 7th note gives the seventh chord its characteristic ‘expectant’ sound.
Notes In a C7 Chord
- The notes contained in a C7 chord are: C, E, G and B flat.
C seventh chords can be played in various ways on the guitar. Three of the most commonly-used C7 chord guitar shapes are shown above.
The two barre chord shapes can be used to play other dominant seventh chords. You could play either of them two frets higher to play a D7 chord.
Chord shapes such as these are known as ‘movable’ chord shapes.
C7 Chord Guitar Shape Conclusion
We hope that you have enjoyed learning how to play the C7 chord guitar shapes on this page.
You can learn more popular chords here: All Guitar Chords Chart
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