Sevenths
A♭ dominant 7th chord
Bluesy tension that pulls strongly toward the chord a 5th below.
A♭7 is the V7 chord in D♭ major. In minor keys: V7 in C♯ minor.
- Notes
- A♭CE♭G♭
- Formula
- 135♭7
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th · minor 7th
How to play A♭7
About the A♭ dominant 7th chord
A♭7 is the V7 of D♭, and jazz players often use it in place of D7 — a trick called tritone substitution, since the two chords share their most important notes.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play A♭7 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 4th fret (464544).
On piano, A♭7 has three black keys (A♭, E♭ and G♭) and one white key.
On ukulele the usual A♭7 shape is 1023, using three fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Cdim (C E♭ G♭) — so you can think of A♭7 as Cdim with A♭ added underneath.
Move a single note and A♭7 becomes a different chord: drop the G♭ for A♭, raise G♭ to G for A♭maj7, lower C to C♭ for A♭m7 and lower G♭ to F for A♭6.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find A♭7 in common progressions such as A♭7–D♭7–E♭7 (the 12-bar blues in A♭ major) and D♯m7–G♯7–C♯maj7 (the jazz cadence in C♯ major).
