When I first picked up a guitar, all I wanted to play was the blues. Not long after learning the initial cowboy chords, the number ‘7’ appeared whenever I opened a Clapton, Hendrix or any blues tab. Back then, I wondered what that meant. Fast-forward 15 years, and I'll share all you need to know about playing the A7 chord step-by-step, along with tips and tricks to avoid the struggles I know you're going through with the buzz sound and sore fingers.
Beyond the blues, 7th chords are used everywhere in music. You might know how to explain it in theory, but whenever you hear a tense, tasty and almost suspenseful chord in a song, it likely is a 7th chord! The blues is made out of them, country couldn’t be born without them, and rock players know the fancy ways of using them - and so will you in the future.
As I always say to my students, play it first, explain it later. We will take the same practical approach and first learn how to play the A7 chord, and afterwards learn the ‘why’ of the ‘7’ and what you can do with it to make you a better player.
First, let's run quickly through the A chord, which you likely already know how to play.
As shown on the tab, do not play the E string on the top if you can avoid it. If this is your first few weeks/months of playing, give yourself some time to achieve this; it's not as easy as it sounds, but it will come naturally as long as you focus on avoiding it until it becomes second nature.
Quick Tip: If you're playing the Blues, you can easily play the A chord with your index finger, barring the 2nd fret of the D, G, and B; just remember not to play the E string when strumming or muting it with the flesh from the index finger.
To play the A7 chords, follow the fingering below.
Like with the A chord, avoid playing the low E string and play the rest of the strings.
Alternative A7 chords: If you know your fretboard, it's easy to find that the G note is also found on the 3rd fret of the E string. Press down with the pinky, and you will get a more bluesy-sounding chord.
Quick Tip: Again, for the blues, barre the 2nd fret of the D, G and B and press down the 3rd fret of the high E with either your middle or ring finger.
There is also this easy-to-play but quite fancy-sounding A7 chord that not many players know how to use.
Following the above instructions correctly, you can play the A7 chord. Yet, there is much more to know on how to play it cleanly and understand what the ‘7’ is. It's not just about knowing more about music theory; you will need this knowledge sooner than you think.
Perhaps barre chords are still challenging if you're in your first months of playing guitar. So let me guide you first through the fingering and then the way to make the barre easy.
Another way to play the chord for those of you who can stretch their pinky is to place it on the 8th fret of the B string. This can be tricky, so don't insist much on it until you get the first version right.
Quick Test: Check if you can find where the A, C#, E, G notes are on the chord. If you have a hard time then spend some time learning the notes on the board.
Now, let's explore The A7 chord, first by understanding how chords are formed and then comparing the A to the A7 chord,
If you don't know already, chords are formed by combining different notes from the major scale.
To form Major chords, we combine the 1st, 3rd and 5th degrees of the scale; this simply means that from the notes that make the A chord, if we assign a number to each, we chose the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes as highlighted below,
The formula for major chords is: 1st, 3rd and 5th
The A major scale notes are: A B C# D E F# G#
The notes of the A chord are: A, C#, E,
Theory Tip: Many players will use the term ‘the third of the chord.’ In the case of the A chord, the third is the C#, while the 5th is the E note.
Seventh chords are slightly different, as they are made not from three but four notes. The extra one doesn't come from the scale but is easy to find, as it's one step down or two frets lower than the A Note, straight to the G Note. The 7th note, in this case, the G, is called the flat seven, noted as ‘b7.’
The formula for 7th chords is: 1st, 3rd, 5th, b7
The notes for the A7 chord are: A, C#, E, G
Theory Tip: Seventh chords are often called dominant seventh or just dominant. So, if you ever hear that on a blues jam, immediately think of the seventh.
Fret buzz, muted strings, pain in the wrist, and sore fingers can't be avoided, but much can be done to overcome them quickly and with the right results. There's no shortcut to playing guitar, but there are methods that drastically make the path easier.
The thumb might not be pressing down on strings, but it matters quite a lot. You will not be able to play the A7 chord or improve much as a guitarist if you ignore the thumb's positioning.
Ideally, when playing chords, you want the thumb to stay as close to the middle of the back of the neck as possible. This helps the finger land straight down the string and avoid muting anything accidentally.
Your wrist might hurt initially, so pay attention and do not practice this for more than a few minutes per day and take short breaks in between.
I only ever took two classical guitar lessons, yet there's something from them I still keep in mind to this day.
As a right-handed player, you would normally hold the guitar on your right lap, yet classical players typically hold it on the opposite lap and at a light upward Angle. That truly helps the hands stretch better; if you've ever noticed rock guitarists bend over or sit when they do the fancy, flashy technical stuff, that's where they got it from!
Try the following
Notice how easier it is to play chords for the left hand using this position and how much pressure is on the wrist. Another major advantage of this position is that you avoid getting a hunched back!
Something I see a lot of beginners and intermediate players do and go unnoticed is pressing down too hard on the neck or strumming the strings too hard. In both scenarios, the outcome won't be good as you risk getting string buzz and getting the guitar out of tune.
In theory, you need to press hard enough only to make the string ring. There's no set way to measure or not do it instinctively; however, I found a way that works.
Regarding strumming, I suggest first using your thumb and then switching to the pick. Apply the same logic as above, starting by strumming hard and gradually going softer until you find that sweet spot.
The muted high E and B strings are the most common issue with beginners playing barre chords.
A good way to fix it is to raise the index finger slightly. This places the top 2 strings under the part of the index finger that has the most flesh. Combining this technique with a proper thumb placement is key to playing a clean A7 or barre chord.
As Guthrie Govan, one of my guitar heroes, once said in a clinic I attended: ‘You will only master a new lick or anything in the instrument once you can use it before deciding whether to use it or not.’
This esoteric quote means that you might know how to play the A7 chord, yet you will only master it once it becomes second nature. Here are a few exercises you can do to improve your chord knowledge and overall playing.
Playing only the A7 all day won't make for a good tune, and you know by now that all songs are made of chord progression, meaning chord after chord after chord.
The 1-minute changes exercise is something I ‘invented’ years ago with my students to help them change chords fast, as very often, the issue is not playing the chords right but transitioning through them smoothly.
For this exercise, do the following
If you do this every day for 5 minutes with breaks in between, you will notice that week after week, the number of cycles you can do will grow and changing chords will become smooth.
Test Time: Now that you know how the A7 chord works, see if you can find the notes of the D7 and E7 chords! If you can't, fret not, cause I have another article dedicated to them.
Another exercise I stole from one of my teachers is called ‘air’ changes, for a very simple reason: when you change chords, the most effective way to transition smoothly is to form the chord's shape while your hand is not pressing down the strings.
This means that when you form the A7 shape, the fingers are already holding the shape before pressing down on the fretboard instead of finding the right frets individually. To practice this, pay close attention to your left hand each time you change chords using this technique; it will be slightly challenging initially, but muscle memory will kick in soon.
When it comes to songs that use the A7 chord, there's an endless list of what I could pick that use the A7 chord. Considering that you might want something easy to play, I would suggest the following.
All three are easy to play and can be simplified depending on your experience with the guitar. Along those lines, anything bluesy will have the 7th chord you want to learn!
If you play one chord right, you can play them all, yet there is some work ahead.
Keep in mind that the time and slight ‘pain’ are part of the process and just a getaway to get your freedom on the instrument and play your favorite tunes. And since I know we all have busy lives, if you can dedicate 15 minutes to the above daily, you will be miles ahead in just a few weeks
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