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Dominant 7th

Chord

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Dominant 7th

Chords

Dominant 7th Chords

Major Chord with a 7th

We can add the "7th" to a Major chord to give the chord a different quality. The added 7th will give the Major chord a feeling of anticipation, as if it's ready to go to another chord. Let's listen to a major chord with an added 7th:

In every major scale, we already find a naturally occurring major chord with a 7th. Actually, there are two: the Major 7th chord (See the Major 7th chord topic for additional information) and the Dominant 7th chord.

The Dominant 7th chord can also be called the V7 chord. This is because of the way this chord is constructed. Remember every major scale contains three naturally occurring Major chords: the I (the "root" or "Tonic"), the IV chord (the "Sub-Dominant") and the V chord (the "Dominant"). All the notes needed for these three chords are found in any single major scale:

Let's start with a simple C Major scale (see chart above). To find the V chord, we count up to the fifth note of the scale. This note is a G. Therefore the V chord is a G Major chord. The notes of the G Major chord (G, B and D) can all be found in the C Major scale.

To make this chord a Dominant 7th chord (or V7 chord), all that is missing is the 7th note. Counting the note G as number 1, count up the C scale to the 7th note above G:

This note is an F. You now have a G7 chord whose notes are G, B, D and F. This G7 chord is the Dominant 7th chord in the key of C Major, which means it is also the V7 chord in the key of C Major.