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Dominant 7 Chords: Key To The Blues

 
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In this lesson we're going to take a look at a key player in blues harmony: the dominant 7 chord. I'll show you how the play our I, IV, and V chords as dominant 7 chords, and once you get that down we'll play through the 12 bar form with the backing track!

Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Intro to the 12 Bar Form In Blues
Styles:
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Dominant 7 Chords: Key To The Blues song notation
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Dominant 7 Chords: Key To The Blues By Anders Mouridsen

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Questions & Answers

6 months ago
Could you make the chord chart easily accessible within the lesson?
Mike Olekshy 6 months ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your request! I think the chord chart was left out of the notation tab as it is redundant with the tablature provided. Also, you can see the chord chart right in the video as Anders explains the chords. You can look up the chord charts for any chords here: https://www.guitartricks.com/chords Hope this helps!

1 year ago
Anders is strumming 13 times. How does that work with 12 bars? Is this something that will expanded on in future lessons?
Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your question! That 13th strum is the final strum of the song, and it's not counted as part of the 12 bar blues form - it's an "extra" strum at the end for a proper ending. Hope this helps!

1 year ago
Why don't the instructor teach you how a dominant chord is constructed?
Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

Hello - thanks so much for your question! In this lesson, Anders is simply introducing the idea of dominant 7th chords without going into much detail just to get you playing as quickly as possible, and not get bogged down with the details. That said, here's a tutorial that goes into much more depth about 7th chords: https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson/11415 Hope this helps!

1 year ago
Why does he say (at 0:05s) that "dominant 7th chords are just basic Major chords but with 1 added note"? I thought minor chords can be 7th chords as well, e.g. Am7... I´m confused...
Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

Hello - thanks so much for your question! You are both correct. To create a 7th chord, you are adding an additional note to EITHER a major or a minor chord. There are 3 types of 7th chords - major, minor, and dominant. The difference between the major and dominant 7th chord is that the added 4th note is a different note. To create a major 7th chord - you have the root, major 3rd, and fifth - and then you add the major 7 note to the chord. To creat a dominant 7th chord - you also have the root, major 3rd, and fifth - but then you add the MINOR 7 note to the chord. In the case of a minor 7th chord - you will have the root, minor 3rd, and fifth, and you would add the minor 7 note to the chord. Hope this helps!