Left-handed C7 diagram
Vertical: high e on the left, nut at the top. Horizontal: high e at the top, nut on the right. X = silent, O = open. Dot numbers are fingers: 1 index, 2 middle, 3 ring, 4 little. A thick line joins notes held with one finger as a barre.
Fret and finger guide
Both codes read from low E to high e, regardless of the diagram view.
- Frets
x · 3 · 2 · 3 · 1 · 0- Fingers
- – · 3 · 2 · 4 · 1 · –
- Level
- Intermediate (this fingering)
Make a clean C7 chord
Begin with C, then add your little finger to G at fret 3. Start the strum at A.
- Place one finger at a time, just behind the fret wire.
- Pick each sounding string slowly. Adjust any finger that mutes its neighbour.
- Release pressure, then make the shape again. Aim for a relaxed hand.
- Strum four beats, rest for four, then repeat. Rest if your hand becomes tired; stop if you feel pain.
Another way to play it
Compare C and C7 by adding and lifting the little finger. Try C7 → F when F feels comfortable.
Fret codes are written low E to high e. An x means leave that string silent.
Practise chord changes with a metronome →C7 notes and chord formula
A dominant seventh combines a major triad with a flat seventh. It often creates a pull towards a chord a perfect fourth above the root, as G7 does towards C.
- Formula
- 1 – 3 – 5 – b7
- Chord notes
- C – E – G – Bb
This guitar voicing leaves out: 5. The notes above describe the chord; the fret guide describes this specific voicing.
How to read chord diagrams · Build a comfortable barre · Connect chord shapes with CAGED