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A♭ dominant seventh chord on piano

Find the A♭ dominant seventh notes, inspect their piano positions, and compare inversions with an audible reference.

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: A♭4 · C5 · E♭5 · G♭5. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5D5E5F5G5C♯4D♯4F♯4A♭4A♯4C♯5E♭5G♭5
Root noteSelected tone

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C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1A♭40
3C54
5E♭57
♭7G♭510

The notes and their roles

A♭ dominant seventh contains A♭, C, E♭ and G♭. From the root, the semitone offsets are 0, 4, 7, 10. The degree formula 1, 3, 5, ♭7 describes each member relative to the root, not its order in a particular voicing.

NoteRoleSemitones above root
A♭Root0
CMajor third4
E♭Perfect fifth7
G♭Minor seventh10

Read this shape accurately

First inspect the major-triad foundation of this seventh chord. The natural C sits between A-flat and E-flat. C-flat would be one semitone lower and would turn the same-root triad into A-flat minor.

Hear the seventh

The seventh here is G♭. Keeping A♭ · C · E♭ fixed and changing only that note to G produces A♭ major seventh. Compare both at the same octave and volume so the one-note difference stays easy to hear.

A dominant-seventh chord is a chord quality. Calling it dominant does not, by itself, establish the key or prove that this chord is functioning as V in a progression.

Choose a bass note

The root-position octave example is A♭4 · C5 · E♭5 · G♭5. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining A♭ as the root. The table gives pitch-class order; move the leading notes up an octave as needed to keep each example ascending.

PositionNotes from the bassBass
Root positionA♭ · C · E♭ · G♭A♭
First inversionC · E♭ · G♭ · A♭C
Second inversionE♭ · G♭ · A♭ · CE♭
Third inversionG♭ · A♭ · C · E♭G♭

A short listening check

Play A♭ dominant seventh together, then as separate notes. Name the major third before looking at the display. Repeat in first inversion and check that C is the bass while A♭ remains the root.

  1. Choose the displayed root and quality in the chord explorer.
  2. Compare root position with one inversion at the same tempo.
  3. Save both examples in a named practice collection, or export a reference with note names.

Sources and methods