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Dominant 7th Arpeggios (Dom 7) | Guitar Lesson with Patterns and Shapes

A dominant arpeggio refers to an arpeggiation of a dominant seventh chord.

Dominant chords are built on the fifth degree of a scale and have a unique sound due to their tension, often resolving to the tonic chord.

The arpeggio simply outlines the notes of this chord in sequence.

Dominant Seventh Arpeggio Construction

A dominant seventh chord is made up of four notes:

Root (1) 

Major third (3)

Perfect fifth (5)

Minor seventh (b7)

G7 chord G B D F
G7 arpeggio G B D F
Formula 1 3 5 b7

One Octave Shapes

Here are four basic dominant seventh arpeggio patterns.

The notes of each shape are spread out over one octave.

The tonic (1) gives the tonality of the arpeggio.

Dominant 7 guitar arpeggios one octave

Two Octave Shapes

The next two diagrams show how you can play dom7 arpeggios in position within the space of two octaves.

Once you are comfortable with the one octave shapes previously seen, you can try to play these shapes starting from the third, the fifth and the seventh. 

Playing the corresponding chord after or before these arpeggios is a good way to bring them together.

Dominant 7 guitar arpeggios two octave

Related Scales

Dominant 7 arpeggio can be found into five modes taken from the four most known families of scale that are :

Major scale

Harmonic minor

Harmonic major

Melodic major scales.

As shown in the guitar diagrams, the five modes are :

  • Mixolydian
  • Phrygian
  • Mixolydian b2
  • Lydian dominant 
  • Mixolydian b13
Dominant 7 arpeggio guitar scales

Extended Dom7 Arpeggios

Diatonic dom7 arpeggios can be extended with the 9, 11 or 13th thus giving four superimposed arpeggios.

Exemple with G7

  • G7 (1, 3, 5, 7).
  • Bm7b5 (1, b3, b5, b7) starting on the third of G.
  • Dm7 (1, b3, 5, b7) starting on the 5th of G.
  • Fmaj7 (1, 3, 5, 7) starting on the b7 of G.
13 arpeggios upper structure 4

Related Chord Shapes

The following short YouTube video show how to play four basic dominant seventh guitar chords (drop 2 voiced) related to a D7 arpeggio shape.

Each chord being formed on each step of the arpeggio : 

Voicing 1 (root in the bass)

Voicing 2 : First inversion with third (3) in the bass.

Voicing 3 : Second inversion with fifth (5) in the bass.

Voicing 4 : Third inversion with minor seventh (b7) in the bass.

You'll find more related chord shapes in this Guitar Chord Dictionary

II-V Progression

The basic use of an arpeggio is to play it over the corresponding chord.

Let's take an example with a C major II-V-I sequence : The chord progression will be Dm7 | G7 | CM7 | % |.

It means that we will be playing a D minor 7th arpeggio over the Dm7 chord, a  G dominant 7th arpeggio over the G7 chord and a C major seventh arpeggio over the CM7. 

Here is a short II | V jazz guitar line using a G dominant 7th arpeggio.

Measure 1 : D Dorian mode starting on the root with a passing tone (A#) between the fifth of Dm7 (A) and the major third of G7 (B).

Measure 2 : G dominant 7th arpeggio starting on the major third (B) with another passing tone (A#) to approach the major third.

Dominant 7th arpeggio jazz guitar lick

Dom7 Arpeggio in Jazz Blues

The following study show how to use dominant 7 arpeggios over a jazz blues progression in Bb.

Three dom7 arpeggios are used in it :

  • Bb7 (Bb, D, F, Ab)
  • Eb7 (Eb, G, Bb, Db)
  • F7 (F, A, C, Eb)

You'll find more Jazz Blues Arpeggio Studies in these Mini Lessons.

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Last edited: 2025-01-13

Comments

  • Mancoba Qubeka

    1 Mancoba Qubeka On 2020-04-23

    I love it. It is nice and comprehensive
    jazz-guitar-licks

    jazz-guitar-licks On 2020-04-23

    Glad it helps

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