E7 Chord in Minor Swing

DjangoFan

One of the chord in the song, Minor swing, is shown as a E7. The finger chart shows the following notes:

6th String: B (7th fret)
5th String: Muted
4th String: G# (6th fret)
3rd String: D (7th fret)
2nd String: Muted
1st String: Muted

The E7 chord looks like a B7 chord.

Is E7 the correct chord?

If E7 is the correct chord, how can you have a E chord without an E note?

Soref

Yes, that's certainly an E7 chord. It contains the notes B (the fifth), G# (the third) and D (the seventh). The b note isn't terribly important for chord sound, but the third and seventh are. You could just play G# and D (in this context), and people would hear what chord you were suggesting.
You can definitely have an E7 chord without an E (the root of the chord) Bill Evans often played rootless voicings, and you'll find it in bebop guitarists' comping a bunch of the time too. All that said if you're playing minor swing in a gypsy jazz context I like to play that E7 chord like this:

6th string: B (7th fret) middle finger
5th string: E (7th fret) middle finger
4th string: G#(6th fret) index finger
3rd string: D (7th fret) ring finger
2nd string: F#(7th fret) ring finger
1st string: B (7th fret) ring finger

In case you're wondering an easy way to finger that is by placing you're middle finger in between the fifth and sixth strings so that it catches both strings. It's a little awkward if you've never done it before, but it becomes comfortable relatively quickly. index finger on the 4th string, and the ring finger bars the top three strings. This is a very common way to voice an E7 chord. It features a natural 9th (the f#) which suggests A melodic minor. Because the chords are usually played quite percussive, I've heard soloists get away with playing f natural over this voicing. However, anytime you see a chord symbol for a tune there are tons of voicings you could play, (of course some work better than others based on context). Another way of elaborating on the voicing you gave us to begin with would be like this:

6th string: B (7th fret) middle finger
5th string: E (7th fret) middle finger you could also mute this string
4th string: G#(6th fret) index finger
3rd string: D (7th fret) ring finger
2nd string: F (6th fret) index finger
1st string: B (7th fret) pinky finger you could aslo mute this string

You get that F natural in the voicing by barring your index finger across the 4th to the 2nd string, and sneak your pinky on the the high e string to get a full six note voicing. If you mute the E note you've got a Bdim7 chord which will create the same sound and function you want for a tune like minor swing. If you play the chord with the E note you might describe it as E7(b9). The very first chord I described (with the F#) is often called E7(9). That's how those two chord symbols would be written at Berklee anyway.
All that said, there's nothing wrong with using the three note voicing in your post.

I hope this helps

nwilkins

DjangoFan wrote:

6th String: B (7th fret)
5th String: Muted
4th String: G# (6th fret)
3rd String: D (7th fret)
2nd String: Muted
1st String: Muted

The E7 chord looks like a B7 chord.

It seems like you may not know how chords are constructed and named.

A major 7th chord is formed by taking every second note of a major scale, ie root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th. A minor 7th chord is formed by doing the same thing but lowering the 3rd and seventh one semi-tone (one fret). A 7th chord is like a major 7th except the 7th is lowered one semi-tone.

Thus you can see that the two most important notes in a chord are the 3rd and 7th because Bminor7 Bmajor7 and B7 all have the same root and same fifth. This is why as long as you have the 3rd and 7th in the chord you don't necessarily need to play the root (or the 5th).

So the notes of a B7 chord are B(root) (optional), Eb(3rd), Gb(5th) (optional) and A(b7).

The notes of E7 are E(root) (optional), Ab(3rd), B(5th) (optional) and D(b7)

So the chord you are describing is an E7.

Obviously the above is a simplified explanation of how chords work, but it will hopefully help. Remember that the lowest note in a chord is not always the root.

mitch251

N Wilkins said

So the notes of a B7 chord are B(root) (optional), Eb(3rd), Gb(5th) (optional) and A(b7).

The notes of E7 are E(root) (optional), Ab(3rd), B(5th) (optional) and D(b7)

So the chord you are describing is an E7.

Just so we dont get confused, let us watch our enharmonic spellings.
The 3rd of a B7 chord should be called D# and the 5th an F#
and in an E7 chord the 3rd should be called G#.
Its no big deal but this stuff is hard enough as it is.
Thanks
Tom