Position 1 / 4

This chord has 4 voicings across the fretboard. Use the arrows to see each shape and fingering — and tap any dot on the diagram to hear that note.

Beginner

E7 Guitar Chord

A dominant seventh with attitude. E7 drives blues progressions and adds a gritty edge to rock and folk songs.

Also known as

  • E 7
  • Edom7
  • E dom7
  • E dominant 7th
  • E dominant seventh

How to Play This Chord

Position your fingers on the fretboard as shown in the diagram. The vertical lines represent the strings, from low E (left) to high E (right), and the horizontal lines are the frets. Numbers inside the dots indicate which finger to use: 1 (index), 2 (middle), 3 (ring), 4 (pinky). An X means don't play that string; an O means play it open. A bar spanning multiple strings means one finger presses across all of them at once — this is known as a barre chord.

Tips & Tricks

Open E7 is simply E major with one finger removed, leaving the D string open. It's one of the most important chords in blues guitar and is used in countless 12-bar progressions. Let all six strings ring and make sure that open D string isn't accidentally muted.

There are many ways to play this chord. Try these:

eBGDAE 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2
eBGDAE 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
eBGDAE 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0
eBGDAE 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

See how E7 works with other chords — Progression Generator