There’s something about playing any of the B chords on a guitar that makes them difficult, especially for beginners. I have already taken a look at quick and easy ways to learn the Bm chord and the best songs to master the B chord, so I thought I’d take a look at some simple songs that contain the easiest of the three B chords, B7.
Unlike B and B minor, B7 isn’t a barre chord, but it is still a little bit of a finger twister so let’s get started by finding out…
How to Play a B7
Unlike most of the root chords, B7 is played using all four fingers, not two or three. Start by placing your second finger on the 2nd fret of the A string (5). Then tuck your first finger underneath it on the 1st fret of the D string (4). Now place your third finger on the 2nd fret of the G string (3), and then put your little finger on the 2nd fret of the high e string. As I said, it is a bit of a finger twister!
Here is a chord diagram to help you visualize it:
In an ideal world, you need to mute the low E string so that it isn’t heard when you strum the chord. There are two ways of doing this. You can either move your thumb around the top of the neck and gently touch the low E string to mute it. Or, you can use the tip of your first finger, which is pressing down on the A string to just touch the low E string, therefore stopping it from ringing.
Both of these methods are difficult for beginners, so don’t worry too much about muting the low E string for now. When you get the hang of playing the B7 chord, then spend some time mastering whichever E string muting technique that best works for you.
How to quickly Play B7 Perfectly
All chords take time and practice to perfect, but there are some techniques that rapidly accelerate how long it takes to master any new or challenging chord. These include the Chord Squeeze Ball and Chord Press and Release Exercise. I have explained these in detail in my in-depth look at the Bm chord, so please check that out to make your practice sessions much more efficient.
Why is it called a B7 chord?
I’m not a great believer in teaching music theory until it is necessary. However, since some of you will be wondering what makes it a B7, I will give as simple and short an explanation as possible. For all of you who don’t want to fill your heads with theoretical knowledge at this early stage, you can jump straight to the songs.
A major scale is a series of notes that work perfectly in a particular key. There are seven notes in a major scale - Doh - Ray - Mi - Fa - So - La - Ti - and back to the start again - Doh. These can also be represented by numbers, i.e. 1 to 7, then back to 8.
For the key of B major, these notes are:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
B - C# - D# - E - F# - G# - A# - B
A major chord contains the first, third, and fifth degrees of a major scale, therefore a B major chord contains:
1 - 3 - 5
B - D# - F#
To turn a major chord into a seventh, or a Dominant Seventh, to give it its full name, you add the sharpened seventh note, A. Therefore the chord is:
1 - 3 - 5 - #7
B - D# - F# - A
You’re probably now thinking, why is the seventh note sharpened, surely a seventh chord contains the standard seventh note. Since this is a dominant seventh, it contains the sharpened seventh note, i.e. A. However, a major seventh chord (maj7) contains the three notes of a major chord - 1 - 3 - 5 - as well as the seventh note - A#.
Therefore, the major 7th (maj7) chord contains the seventh note of the major scale, while the 7th (or dominant 7th) chord contains the sharpened 7th note of the major scale. I know it's a little confusing, but that’s music theory for you. It’s like a language, once you know how to connect all the words, it all makes sense, until then you haven’t got a clue what’s going on. Learn a little at a time, and eventually, everything will fall into place. But as I mentioned at the start of this section, if you’re new to playing guitar, don’t get stressed by the theory, you can come back to it when you’re ready.
Now that’s covered, let’s take a look at our first song, and it doesn’t get much easier than this…
Dance the Night Away - The Mavericks
There are many hit songs that are very easy to play, but this, along with Horse with No Name by America, take the prize for the two simplest songs ever to be hits. In fact, it only contains two chords:
E / B7
These are repeated throughout with no changes for verses, bridges, choruses, etc. Nothing! It’s just a bar of E followed by a bar of B7, and then repeat that again, again, and again, until the song finishes.
What makes it a great starter song to learn the B7 chord is that you never need to take your second finger off the note on the 2nd fret of the A string. This can remain where it is for the whole song acting as an anchor. You therefore, just swap the positions of your first and third fingers, moving each finger up or down a string depending on what chord you are playing and add the little finger for the B7 chord. It really doesn’t get much simpler than this.
Play any 4/4 rhythm you are comfortable with along with the video below and you will have your B7 chord down in no time at all.
Next, let’s move on to a…
Chordal 12-bar Blues in E major
Now this isn’t really a song, but it’s also thousands of songs. Confused? I thought you might be!
This chord progression or its variations have been used in just about every blues song ever written. It’s called a 12-bar blues because it contains 12 bars of music, and in the key of E, the progression goes like this…
E7 / E7 / E7 / E7
A7 / A7 / E7 / E7
B7 / A7 / E7 / E7-B7
This is usually played using one of the numerous 12-bar blues riffs, but it can also be played by strumming standard root chords, which makes it a great option for learning and improving your B7 chord. You can use any 4/4 rhythm you know and play it at any speed you like, so have fun experimenting with a chordal blues progression while you nail that B7 or play along with the following jam track:
Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
This probably comes as a shock to a lot of you, but Nothing Else Matters by Metallica is actually a very easy song to play if you strip it down to its basic form.
We are going to play it using only basic root chords and not worry about the fingerpicking sections or the heavy guitar solos for now. These can come later after you’ve improved. The section we will be concentrating on is the verse because it’s where you will find the B7 chord. But the bridge and choruses can also be easily played using simple chords, so once you get the hang of the verse, move on to those.
The chords for the verse are:
Em / Em / D / C
Em / Em / D / C
Em / Em / D / C
G / B7 / Em / Em
Em / Em
This progression repeats either one or two more times depending on which verse of the song you are playing.
The rhythm that fits perfectly with the song is probably one of the first rhythms you ever learned, a basic 3/4 rhythm, i.e. Down, Down Up Down. I did say it was easy!
What makes this such a great song to learn your B7 chord is that all the other chords are easy to play with a very simple rhythm. Therefore, you get into the swing of the song and don’t want to stop when the B7 chord rears its ugly head. You therefore tend to plow through the B7 chord change without stopping, which rapidly improves your ability to play the new chord.
If you want to take a more in-depth look at how to play the song, check out this Nothing Else Matters tab.
And finally, we have a classic from the Man in Black…
I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash
Even though the song only contains simple chords - A, D, E, G, and B7, the structure is quite complicated, so it’s best if you strum along with the I Walk the Line tab to get a feel for the chords in the different verses, choruses, and bridges.
Once you get the structure down, play along with the following video…
Wrapping it Up
We’ve come to the end of my look at the best songs to practice a B7 chord. As with any new chord, the best way to learn B7 is to find songs that contain chords you can already play well that also contain a B7. This makes playing most of the song easy, the only slight stumbling block will be the new chord, in this case, B7. However, the fact that you can change the other chords and keep the rhythm going pushes you to change to the new chord quickly and hopefully not lose your rhythm.
Also remember, that to get good at playing any new chord you need to practice it both precisely and quickly. For precision, play the chord one note at a time until all the strings ring out clearly, then strum the whole chord to make sure that every note is still crystal clear. But also remember to practice changing to and from chords you already know to the new chord very quickly, and not overly worrying about getting the chord to sound perfect. Practice using both these methods and over time your precision will improve and you will change to and from the chord quickly and easily.
