I got four new chords for you here and all are dominant sevens. First stop is D7, and I like to think of this as the mirror image of D. So start with the D, which I trust you see in your mind and before your very eyes as a forward facing triangle. Picture this as a reverse facing triangle and then you have D7. But let me talk it through anyway. Open D, 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, 1st string plays the note C on the first fret of the B string and the 3rd finger plays the higher. That is D dominant 7. Once again, it is like the mirror image of the D forward facing, reverse facing. Clearly, there is a change of fingering but it is more of the concept in your mind. Remember, no spider fingers. Do it one note at a time. Make a D7. Just before we leave D7, let us consider dominant sevens are usually in most musical circumstances the 5th chord of the key. So D is the 5th of G, which you already know, so at your leisure practices D7 now to G.
Moving on, A7. Now, I am well aware that I thought A7 has a different fingering, let me remind you also that we want the note, which is a tone, behind the root. Example, A up to D, the tone behind that A note is an open G. So we want an A chord with an open G and the way to configure that is to simply do this 2nd finger on the full string, 2nd fret and 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the B string and that is it. Remember, we want the open G sounding in between. Let me stress the importance of keeping both of these fingers upright. As I stressed at the very start of the DVD, A7 meeting with 6th string is A7, A dominant 7, which must be the fifth of D or D minor. So A7 to D, practice it your leisure A7 to D or A7 to D minor.
Moving on, C7. This is incredibly quick to show you. You play a C chord then add your little finger on which probably holding already that is the 3rd fret of the 3rd string and note of B flat. That is C7. Once again, it is a C chord. Add your little finger on 3rd fret of the 3rd string and omit the bottom string – the C chord, C dominant 7 that must be the 5th of F. So at your leisure, practice C7 to F.
There is one more dominant 7 chord to learn and it is in open position. It is a B7. It does not really look like anything else so let us learn it from scratch. The note of B is found on the 2nd fret of the 5th string, play to the 2nd finger as it happens. First finger frets the 1st fret of the 4th string, the note of D#, which means it is fundamentally a major kind of chord but it is a dominant 7 chord – B7. The seventh is found in the form of the note of A, with the third finger at the 2nd fret of the 3rd string and open B. Open second string and finally the little finger on top, place the 2nd fret of the top string. I am meeting the 6th string. Once again, the notes of B, the note of D#, make sure that you are not leaning across in getting this. To get that sound, that means you are leaning on to the 4th string. So B, D#, A, open B and high F# and if you are going to strum that, be careful as I said not to play the bottom string. It is a good idea too. Your second finger up against the 6th string, so if I play from high to low, that is deliberating a strum if you wish. B7, B7 is the 5th of E. So B7 note of the E major or E minor. Practice that at you leisure. B7 to E, can you hear the resolution? This is what a perfect cadence is. What is that numerically if roman numerals V-I or E minor?
Next I would like to talk about a specific kind of progression. I have already told you about the three chord trick, what is it? One, four and five – these, all major, or all minor or indeed a variation thereof a combination, I should mix that early. You can mix up the majors and minors as you wish or as the composer wishes. Here, I am going to focus on what it is called a two-five. By now, you should be using it. Just at numbers two-five, one, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, here it is, two-five. Let us work in the key of C. So C is one obviously, the first note of C is C. Therefore, the first chord is easy. But we are not going to use that for the moment. We are going
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