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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Music theory → One or Two Dominant 7th Chords, in the same song.
Hi Guys,
I thought this one would be for the Music Theory buffs, I have a copy of Freight Train
by Elizabath (Libas) Cotton. The song is in the key of [G] but it has two Dominant 7th
Chords in the Version I have, IE, [ G, B7th, C, D7th ] is this normal, to have Two Dominant
7th Chords in the same song.
Luck and Health to all!!!
Headcase in music there is no normal dom 7chords have a special flavor in many blues and country songs they provide sort of an edge or raw feel to the music especially 1st position open dom 7ths E&A there are other forms I use all over the neck but they are altered chords and require string muting and dont sound as nice as the open kind but a capo can assist this 
Hi Guys,
I thought this one would be for the Music Theory buffs, I have a copy of Freight Train
by Elizabath (Libas) Cotton. The song is in the key of [G] but it has two Dominant 7th
Chords in the Version I have, IE, [ G, B7th, C, D7th ] is this normal, to have Two Dominant
7th Chords in the same song.Luck and Health to all!!!
I play this one in C but the same applies.
My version has the 7th (mine G7 / yours D7) at the start of the verse (1st chord change) when you sing "... go so fast..." the first time.
At the end of the verse , the chord before my final C is a G. (Not G7)
I think it sounds better without the 7th the 2nd time. That's just my preference.
I think the reason for this is that the melody itself hits the 7th on the word "fast", so the 7th chord sounds fine.
At the end of the verse there is no 7th in the tune so a chord without the 7th sounds fine.
As I say, it's how I sing it and what sounds right to me.
Having said that, there is no rule about how many 7ths should be in a song. I suppose moderation is the best bet.
Too much of anything can become irksome. 
Have you seen the vids of Elizabeth Cotton singing this on YouTube?
To Russell and Stonebridge, thanks for the quick answers, I thought that there was no limit on
the Dom7th chord within reason, but I just wanted to make sure, so thank you both.
Yes Stonebridge, I watched her play and at 92, to play a right handed Guitar left handed with
the strings still on the way for the right handed Guitar is just WOW!
Luck and Health to all!!!
Thinking about the harmonized major scale, the dominant chord would normally be the V7 chord. In the key of G it would be D7 (D, F#, A, C). In the song you mention it looks like the D7 resolves to the chord that is a fifth below it, the G chord. The B7 (B D# F# A) contains a tritone between the D# and A. Typically the D# would resolve up to E and the A would resolve down to G#, just as the V7 chord did. The chord that comes after the B7 is C (C E G). It contains the E that the D# is pulling towards, but not the G#. This ought to leave that section of the song with a bit of unresolved tension, a feeling of mobility, which in this case makes sense because the truer, stronger resolution comes at the end when the D7 comes back to G.
I think.
Last night I went to see "1964 The Tribute" , a Beatles tribute band.
Driving home I was pondering how important the 'hard' 7th was to that music.
Think about how the dominant 7th is used in "She's a Woman" which is just a basic blues (I, IV, V) where the guitar play each as a 7th.
Or, my favorite, the little riff in "I Feel Fine" which is almost a straight dominant 7th arpeggio. By bridging the divide between major and minor, the 7th opens up the melody to extra notes and gives us more options.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Music theory → One or Two Dominant 7th Chords, in the same song.
