G7 second position fingering

by Rick
(South Bend, In)

Question: What is the shape of a G7 chord at the second position?

Answer

Chord positions tend to be identified based on the position of your index finger, therefore the "second position of G7" would indicate a 2nd fret index finger bass note.

As the note F# is not part of G7 we can rule out using the 2nd fret low E string as our bass note. However, the A string provides us with a B note, the 3rd of G major, so the second position of G7 could be fingered as follows.



The A string bass note is now the 3rd of the chord and the open G string provides the root.

This is a typical example of chord inversion which I am due to upload lessons on soon.