Easy D7 Guitar Chord for Beginners

The D7 Chord (also known as the Dominant D 7th Chord) is often referred to as a Blues chord. Once you learn to play it, you will understand why. It just has a real bluesy sound to it. It is definitely one of the easiest beginner chords to learn how to play. There are several different ways to play it, but I will demonstrate the easiest ways in the following post. See the chord charts below for more information on playing this chord.

The D7 Chord is found by first locating the 1, 3 and 5  positions (D, F# and A) of the D Major Scale: D E F# G A B C# D, and then adding a flat 7 note. To locate the flat 7 note, we first find the 7th note of the D Major scale (C#) and then go back a 1/2 step to the C.

So the notes of the D7 Chord are: D  F# A C.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

This second D7 chord is technically a chord inversion because the D note is no longer the bass note or lowest pitch. The A note now becomes the bass note.  It is still referred to as a D7 chord though.  If you play it, you will notice it sounds just like the D7 chord above only it has a fuller sound because we are adding an additional A, or 5th position to this chord.

D7 Guitar Chord Video

The video below will further demonstrate how to correctly play the D7 Chord. Enjoy!