Improvisation Guitar — Dominant 7 Chord — Part I

The Dominant 7 chord (e.g., C7) is comparable to a shaky skyscraper. 🙂 Going from the third to the seventh forms a tritone, which generally longs for resolution.

Due to its instability, it needs a resolution, for example: V — I (from the dominant to the tonic = G7 — C Maj7).

But precisely because of its instability, it allows for improvisation with many, sometimes quite unconventional, scales or arpeggios.

This is the beginner version. I will write an advanced, non-beginner version in another post.

The Dominant 7 Chord

First, let’s agree on which chord we are playing. Let’s just take C7.

C Mixolydian

Of course, the first scale that probably comes to mind is Mixolydian. If you’re not familiar with it, check out the major scale first.

Seeing C7 as the V degree of F, you would be playing Mixolydian correctly.

C Minor Pentatonic

Yes, exactly. You could also play the pentatonic over it. It’s the typical “I have no idea what to play, so I’ll just play pentatonic” scale, but if you play cool blues licks over it, it works great.

The only sticking point here might be that the pentatonic has a b3 (minor third) and the Mixolydian has a 3 (major third).

It would sound strange if you stayed on the b3, but as a passing tone, it should work fine.

The reason is that we are simply used to the pentatonic. Blues licks, Guns n’ Roses solos, and countless guitarists (and other instruments) who use the pentatonic as their “one and only” scale have shaped our ears to it.

For those who prefer to start from the E string, here is the E string pattern:

A Minor Pentatonic

Another scale often played over a Dominant 7 chord is the A minor pentatonic.

If we see C7 as the V degree of F, then the VI degree (relative minor) would be Aeolian. And from the VI degree, you very often play the pentatonic. So this works just fine.

C Major Pentatonic

Just like the A Minor Pentatonic, the C Major Pentatonic works as well.

The advantage over the A Minor Pentatonic is that with the C Major Pentatonic, you’re already thinking in C. So you’re not using a different scale and not even sure where the root (in our case, “C”) is, but you know exactly where you should eventually stop.

F Ionian

Of course. If the V step Mixolydian and VI step Aeolian (or minor pentatonic) work, then F Ionian (and all other modes from F) also work.

Still, I mention F Ionian separately here. After all, it’s the first chord in the key of F, right? 🙂

C7 Arpeggio

To be 100% safe, you could just play the C7 arpeggio. This way, you’re guaranteed not to go wrong.

To keep things interesting, you could, for example, start with a blues lick from the pentatonic (C Pentatonic, C Minor Pentatonic, A Minor Pentatonic), then find your way back to the chord with the C7 arpeggio and finish off the lick.