The F#7 chord
Think of the F#7 as the cornerstone of the twelve-bar. The chord is built from F# - A# - C# - E, a textbook dominant seventh. It does its strongest work in every blues form and most jazz tunes, where it tends to land a hard cadence. The F#7 earns its place in the progression. Day Tripper by The Beatles uses F#7 as the chord that twists the song sideways. Voicings on both instruments, theory in plain language, progressions in multiple keys and a handful of real song references are all laid out below.
Hear the F#7 in the chord builder →Voicings for F#7
Common ways to grip the F#7 on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.
Guitar , full chord shapes
CAGED-derived voicings for F#7 across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.
Guitar , triad shapes
Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.
Piano voicings
Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.
The theory behind F#7
Progressions that use F#7
Short progressions that put the F#7 to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.
This chord appears as a borrowed or passing chord in many major-key progressions.
→ Build this in the chord builderSongs that feature F#7
Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.
- Day Tripper by The Beatles. F#7 colour as part of the song's twist.
- Crossroads by Cream. F#7 within the blues form (modulated).
- Hound Dog by Elvis Presley. F#7 within a modulated take of the form.
Related chords
Chords a step away from the F#7 in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.
Keys where F#7 lives
The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.
Related references
Other ways to put the F#7 to work across the reference library.
More songwriting tools
Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the F#7 fits into context. All free, no signup.
About the chord builder
The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.
This page is a static reference for the F#7. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.