Dominant 7th Grips are a bit everywhere! Learn how to play them and an alternative fingering to sound cooler.
View the full lesson at E Shape 7 Chords | JustinGuitar
I can play barre chords up to C# with little to no problem. But if I try and play a D barre chord or higher, suddenly I’m muting almost all strings and contorting my hand and wrist just to fit my fingers on the right fret. Is this common?
Hi LightStones, it’s all about getting used to playing it higher up the neck - after all your fingers are getting closer together, angle how you keep your wrist and thumb is changing as well. It seems tricky first but gets better with practice.
I suggest introducing some barre chords higher up the neck into one minute changes practice and you will get better at it 
Thanks so much for the reply. I’ll keep plugging away at it.
Hi @TheLightStones and welcome to the community.
You get some good advice from @adi_mrok
Remember also that when you reach a 6-string E-shape barre chord at fret 6 (=B flat) you get the exact same chord as a 5-string A-shape barre chord at fret 1 (= B flat also). Perhaps that is about as uncomfortable as a 6-string barre chord at fret 10 and beyond.
Where this knowledge gets really useful is in the mid-section.
Example:
C = fret 8 (E-shape) and C = fret 3 (A-shape).
D = fret 10 (E-shape) and D = fret 5 (A-shape).
These can convert to dominant 7 chords by playing the A-shape with an index finger barre and just two other fingers on the D and B strings.
I’m not saying don’t learn to play barres higher up. Just be aware that you have choices and sometimes one will be preferred for the sound / timbre of the particular chord shape / voicing.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator
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Excellent, thank you!
Hi,
I am in trouble with this shape at first frets F7. I didn’t succeed to play clean all the strings, depending on the position of my fingers the B or D strings are muted or buzzed. Sometimes seems they sound good but increasing the strength of picking they start to buzz.
Hi Richard,
Justin presents a 3-finger “hack” to the full dom7 barre chord (E-shaped). Is there a similar hack for the A-shaped dominant 7 barre chord as well? I find this one especially challenging (string buzz on G string).
cheers,
Gert.
Below is an article on shell voicings for 7 chords with plenty of info. The reason a 3 note seven chord works is because the 5 note is very harmonically close to the 1 note. I’ve heard it called the “potato” note because it’s a filler note that doesn’t add much flavour to the chord. So you can skip the 5 note altogether with out losing the characteristic sound of the 7 chord.
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Another good alternative for a dominant 7 chord rooted on the 5th string is the C7 shape, played higher up the neck. You should mute (or avoid strumming) the 1st and 6th strings.
This shape seems much more common than the A-shape barre chord in blues playing.
I thought I would share this here as it might help other students who are struggling with the barre 7th chords; I made a few attempts already but with no success…last one a couple months ago, after a few days of practice I once more gave up thinking that have the D string ring out clear was mission impossible for me (I’m quite confident with my regular barre chords).
This past week I brought my guitar to the Liuther because there was something wrong with the amplification 'system. When he gave it back to me he said he had made a little adjustment on the neck as well and that I should find it easier to play the chords…well, I still struggle to believe it, now I can play the 7h Barre Chords with no effort at all just by putting down the shape…and the D string rings out! The strings are now so close to the neck that they don’t need to be pressed hard! I tried both the E and A shape and also the mini-barre with ring finger which I should be able to play now with a bit of practice.
A few years ago another Liuther had made the setup of the neck…but I can tell the strings were not so close to the fretboard as they are now!