E7 Chord - Learn to Play on Guitar & Piano Keyboard

This article on the E7 chord explains its music theory and teaches you to play the common voicings of the chord on the guitar and piano keyboard with recommended fingering options.

Read the complete article on how to play the E7 chord below!

Music Theory, Notes & Intervals Of The E7 Chord

The music theory of the E7 chord, in brief, is:

It is built by stacking an interval of a minor third over the E major triad.
The dominant 7th chord has intervals of major third – minor third – minor third over the root notes.
The notes of the E7 chord are [E, G#, B, and D]. These notes are at the scale degrees [5, 7, 2, and 4] of the A major key.

E7 Chord Scales

The following scales contain the E7 dominant chord as a naturally occurring chord:

A Major Scale and its modes.
A Melodic Minor Scale and its modes.
B Melodic Minor scale and its modes.
A Harmonic Minor scale and its modes.
A Harmonic Major scale and its modes.

How To Play The E7 Chord

You will now learn how to play the E7 guitar and E7 piano chords.

Map E7 Guitar Chord Along All The Fretboard

The chord tones of the E7 guitar chords in standard tuning are shown on the fretboard in the diagram below.

E Dominant Seventh Chord – Guitar Chord Shapes And Fingerings

You can go through the various ways to play the E7 guitar chord in the guitar chord diagrams below. Like other guitar chords, you can play E7 in open, movable, and barre chord shapes. The red circles show the suggested finger positions, and the black circles show the fret numbers. The strings marked ‘X’ must be muted or skipped, while ‘O’ must be played in the open position.

Open Position

The open voicings of the E7 chord are detailed below in all the positions up to the octave.

O1 – Construction – (x – x – 2 – 1 – 3 – 0). Notes – (1, 3, b7, and 1). This shape has an omitted 5th note. The lowest root note is on the D string
O2 – Construction – (0 – 2 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 0). Notes – (1, 5, b7, 3, 5, and 1). The lowest root is the open low e string.
O3 – Construction – (x – 2 – 0 – 1 – 3 – 0). Notes – (5, b7, 3, b7, and 1). B is the bass note.
O4 – Construction – (0 – 2 – 0 – 1 – 3 – 0). Notes – (1, 5, b7, 3, b7, and 1).
O5 – Construction – (0 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 3 – 0). Notes – (1, 5, 1, 3, b7, and 1).
O6 – Construction – (0 – 5 – x – x – x – x). Notes – (1 and b7). 3rd and 5th are omitted.
O7 – Construction – (0 – x – 6 – 7 – x – x). Notes – (1, 3, and b7). 5th is omitted.
O8 – Construction – (0 – 7 – 6 – 7 – 5 – 0). Notes – (1, 1, 3, b7, 1, and 1). 5th is omitted.
O9 – Construction – (0 – 7 – 6 – 7 – 0 – 7). Notes – (1, 1, 3, b7, 5, and 5).
O10 – Construction – (x – 7 – x – 7 – 9 – 7). Notes – (1, b7, 3, and 1). 5th is omitted.

O10

Movable Positions

The eight voicings to play guitar movable shapes are shown below.

M1 – Construction – (x – x – x – 4 – 3 – 4). Notes – (5, b7, and 3). This is a rootless voicing.
M2 – Construction – (4 – x – 2 – 4 – 3 – x). Notes – (3, 1, 5, and b7).
M3 – Construction – (x – x – 2 – 4 – 3 – 4). Notes – (1, 5, b7, and 3).
M4 – Construction – (x – 7 – 6 – 7 – 5 – x). Notes – (1, 3, b7, and 1). 5th is omitted.
M5 – Construction – (x – 7 – 6 – 7 – x – x). Notes – (1, 3, and b7). 5th is omitted.
M6 – Construction – (x – 7 – 6 – 7 – x – 7). Notes – (1, 3, b7, and 5).
M7 – Construction – (x – x – 6 – 7 – 5 – 7). Notes – (3, b7, 1, and 5).
M8 – Construction – (12 – x – 12 – 13 – 12 – x). Notes – (1, b7, 3, and 5).

Barre Chords

The seven Barre chord shapes for the E7 chord are

B1 – (1, 1, 5, b7, 3, and 5). This shape uses the open low e string also.
B2 – (1, 5, b7, 3, and 5).
B3 – (1, b7, 3, and 5).
B4 – (1, 3, and b7).
B5 – (5, 1, 3, and b7). B is the root note. This is a very common voicing with the minor seventh note on the high e-string.
B6 – (b7, 3, 5, and 1).
B7 – (1, 5, b7, 3, 5, and 1). Note that this shape is based on the open E7 shape shown as O2 above.