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E dominant seventh chord on piano

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

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: E4 · G♯4 · B4 · D5. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5D5C♯4D♯4F♯4G♯4A♯4C♯5
Root noteSelected tone

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C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1E40
3G♯44
5B47
♭7D510

The notes and their roles

E dominant seventh contains E, G♯, B and D. 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
ERoot0
G♯Major third4
BPerfect fifth7
DMinor seventh10

Read this shape accurately

First inspect the major-triad foundation of this seventh chord. The single black key G-sharp lies between E and B. Compare the sound of that G-sharp with G natural while holding the two outer notes steady.

Hear the seventh

The seventh here is D. Keeping E · G♯ · B fixed and changing only that note to D♯ produces E 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 E4 · G♯4 · B4 · D5. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining E 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 positionE · G♯ · B · DE
First inversionG♯ · B · D · EG♯
Second inversionB · D · E · G♯B
Third inversionD · E · G♯ · BD

A short listening check

Play E dominant seventh together, then as separate notes. Name the major third before looking at the display. Repeat in first inversion and check that G♯ is the bass while E 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