ArpeggiosEN

Arpeggio quality

7

The dominant seventh is the engine of tonal harmony: a major triad with a minor seventh on top. The major third and the minor seventh form a tritone, the most unstable interval in the system, and that tension is what makes the chord want to resolve down a fifth. Blues uses it as home, jazz uses it as the gateway to the tonic, and every cadence in between leans on it. It is also the chord that accepts the most alterations — flat and sharp ninths, sharp elevens, flat thirteenths — which is why it sits at the centre of the dictionary. Listen for the tritone and where it wants to go.

Formula
1 3 5 ♭7
Notes
C♯ E♯ G♯ B
Family
Dominant

Notation in C♯

representative key
44135♭7

Fretboard — frets 0–12

C♯ 7 — frets 0 to 12, 25 notes, roots in orange35♭71♭7135♭75♭71335♭71♭713535♭710123456789101112
C♯ 7 — frets 0 to 12, 25 notes, roots in orange35♭71♭7135♭75♭71335♭71♭713535♭710123456789101112

All 17 keys

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Same family

How to practise this arpeggio

  • Play the tritone between the third and seventh slowly and hear the pull.
  • Resolve the chord down a fifth and feel the tritone collapse.
  • Use it as the V chord in a ii–V–I and accent the seventh.
  • Play the same shape on each string set and listen for the bluesy edge.