D7 Guitar Chord: 8 Ways To Play This Chord

Want to learn the D7 guitar chord? You’re in the right place, we’re going to show you 6 ways to play the D7 guitar chord. 

In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• 8 must-know ways to play the D7 guitar chord.
• How to learn chords quickly and effectively.
• 4 essential chord hacks which will make you sound amazing.

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The two main D7 guitar chords are:

• The open D7 guitar chord.
• The D7 guitar chord. (E7 barre shape.)

Open D7 Guitar Chord

This is one of the most common ways to play a D7 guitar chord. It is also the easiest!

• Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 1st fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the high E string. (1st string.)

D7 Guitar Chord (E7 Barre Shape)

This chord uses the EXACT same shape as a regular E7 guitar chord. The only difference is that you barre your first finger across the 10th fret.

Here’s a E7 guitar chord:

Here’s a D7 guitar chord. (E7 shape.)

Notice how the shape of a E7 guitar chord fits within a D7 barre chord.

To play this chord:

• Barre your first finger across the all of the strings on the 10th fret.
• Place your 3rd finger on the 12th fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 2nd on the 11th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Strum all the strings!

If you find this too difficult, try this smaller voicing:

• Place your 1st finger on the 10th fret of the low E string. (6th string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 10th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 11th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)

Bonus Barre Chord Tip!

Barre chords can be a road block in a beginner guitarists journey. They’re tough and can really test your dexterity.

Here are 3 quick & easy tricks which will help you master barre chords:

  

What is a D7 guitar chord?

A D7 guitar chord is a advanced version of a regular D chord.

Don’t how to play a D chord? Go here:Easy Ways To Play The D Chord On Guitar

D and D7 are exactly the same, however the D7 has one extra note. That note is a C.

Here are all of the notes in a D chord:

• Root – D.
• 3rd – F#.
• 5th – A.

Here are all of the notes in a D7:

• Root – D.
• 3rd – F#.
• 5th – A.
• b7th – C.

To learn more about guitar notes and theory, go here: Guitar Notes Explained: A Guide For Beginners

Pro Guitar Tip!

The D7 guitar chord can be written in a variety of different ways. Here are a few examples:

• D7.
• D Dominant 7th.
• D7 guitar chord.

Each of these terms are correct. However, in this lesson we’re going to refer to the D7 chord as the ‘D7 guitar chord’.

Let’s learn some more voicings of the D7 guitar chord.

D7 Guitar Chord (C7 Shape)

This D7 guitar chord is based on the shape of a ‘C7 guitar chord’.

Here’s a C7 guitar chord:

To learn this chord, go here:C7 Guitar Chord

To play a D7 guitar chord, move this chord shape up two frets.

Here’s a chord box for reference:

If you find this voicing too difficult, you can play this instead:

• Place your 2nd finger on the 5th fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 1st finger on the 4th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 5th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)

For more easy chords, go here: 14 Easy Guitar Chords For Beginners

Why does this work?

This works because the C7 guitar chord is a ‘moveable shape’. This means that the shape of this chord can be moved up and down the fret board.

When you move this shape to a different fret, you are changing the key of the guitar chord.

This concept is part of the CAGED system, to learn more about this, go here:CAGED Guitar System: How To Master Chords

D7 Guitar Chord (A7 Shape)

This D7 guitar chord is based on a regular A7 chord.

Here’s a A7 chord:

To learn this chord, go here: A7 Guitar Chord

Here’s the D7 guitar chord. (A7 shape.)

Notice how the shape of the A7 chord fits within the D7 barre chord. All we’ve added is a barre across the 5th fret.

To play this chord:

• Barre your 1st finger across the 5th fret from the A string. (5th string) to the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 7th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 7th fret of the B string. (3rd string.)

D7 Guitar Chord (1 Finger Barre Chord)

If you want to practice barring technique but don’t feel like you’re ready to play a full barre chord, try learning this chord voicing.

• Barre your 1st finger across the 7th fret of the D (4th string), G (3rd string), B (2nd string) and E. (1st string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 8th fret of the high E string. (1st string.)

D7 Guitar Chord (D7 Barre Shape)

This chord is exactly the same as the regular open D7 chord, however we’ve moved it up 12th frets and adjusted the fingering.

This chord sounds tight and vibrant and is perfect funk and soul music.

• Place your 1st finger on the 12th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 14th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 13th fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 14th fret of the high E string. (1st string.)

How do I practice the D7 guitar chord?

Here are 4 powerful practice tips which you can use to master any guitar chord that you are learning.

This methods have been tried and tested in real world guitar lessons and are guaranteed to take your guitar playing to the next level.

1) Every time you learn a new guitar chord, squeeze your fretting hand

Squeezing your fretting engages your muscle memory. When you do this, you are teaching your hand to remember the guitar chord you have just played.

However, it’s vital that you play the chord correctly BEFORE you squeeze your hand. If you don’t do this, you will be teaching yourself to play the chord incorrectly.

How do I know if the chord is correct?

Here are 3 simple steps you can take to check that your guitar chord is right:

1. Make sure your fingers are in the correct place. A chord box is your best friend!
2. Make sure that each note in the chord is clear. You don’t want ANY dead notes.
3. Make sure that you don’t feel any pain in your fretting hands. Your hands should be nice and relaxed.

2) Play Your Guitar Chords Without Looking At The Fretboard

The best way to practice guitar chords, is to practice them without looking at the fret board.

Here are 7 quick & easy steps which will help you master guitar chords:

1. Pick an A7 guitar chord to learn.
2. Learn this guitar chord.
3. Squeeze your fretting hand 5 times.
4. Remove your fretting hand from the fret board.
5. Look into the corner of the room. (Your fret board MUST be out of sight.)
6. Try and play the guitar chord.
7. Check to see if you got it right!

If you did, fantastic! Try the same method with another chord. If you didn’t, don’t worry. Just repeat steps 1-7 again.

3) Practice Moving Between Each Guitar Chord

One of the best ways to practice the A7 guitar chord is to practice moving between each chord.

You would do this from the lowest point on the fret board and ascend to the highest. Practice each chord in this order:

• D7 guitar chord. (Open position.)
• D7 guitar chord. (C7 shape.)
• D7 guitar chord. (A7 barre shape.)
• D7 guitar chord. (1 finger barre chord.)
• D7 guitar chord. (E7 barre shape.)
• D7 guitar chord. (D7 shape.)

Once you feel like you’ve mastered this, practice going from the highest point on the fret board to the lowest.

4) Use The D7 Guitar Chord In A Musical Situation

If you want to enhance your chord knowledge and musicality, try and use the D7 guitar chord in a musical situation.

The best way to do this is to learn music which uses this chord. Here are 3 of our favourite songs which use a D7 guitar chord.

1) A D Blues Progression

The D7 chord is used frequently in a blues in the key of D. Here are the chords for a 12 bar blues in the key of D.

To learn more about blues guitar, go here:Blues Guitar Lessons For Beginners – 4 Ways To Sound Awesome Quickly

2) ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison

‘Brown Eyed Girl’ is a 60s classic. The D7 guitar chord is used in the verse and chorus of this song.

To learn this song in more detail, go here:‘Brown Eyed Girl’ Chords

3) ‘I’m A Believer’ by The Monkees

If you’ve ever seen the film ‘Shrek’ you may recognise this song!

You can check out this song on Spotify: ‘I’m A Believer’ by The Monkees

Here are a few reasons why you should learn this song right now:

• It’s a crowd pleaser! Every one loves this song.
• The D7 guitar chord is used throughout the song.
• It’s really easy and only uses 3 chords.

To learn this song, go here: ‘I’m A Believer’ Chords