F#7alt: guitar chord voicings, inversions, scales and arpeggios

F#7alt (7alt) is an interactive GuitarArcanum page with chord formula, intervals, voicings, inversions, triads, pentatonic patterns, scales and arpeggios on the fretboard.

Chord formula

Interval formula: 1 3 b7 b9 #9 b5 #5. An altered dominant — a dominant with its 9th and 5th altered (b9, #9, b5, #5). Maximum tension before a resolution.

Chord tones

The core is the 3rd–b7 tritone. Everything else is altered: the 9ths (b9, #9) and 5ths (b5/#5). You don't play them all — just the tritone plus a couple of alterations, often leaving the root to the bass.

Sound character

As tense and dark as a dominant gets — the sound of the altered scale (the 7th mode of the melodic minor).

Harmonic function

An altered dominant, usually the V before a minor or major tonic. The strongest pull there is.

Typical progressions

  • G#m7b5 – C#7alt – F#m
  • G#m7 – C#7alt – F#maj7
  • C#7alt → C

Guitar voicing advice

Play the 3rd–b7 tritone plus one or two alterations, not everything at once. A handy grip: root in the bass, with 3, b7, b9, #5 on the guitar.

Compatible scales for F#7alt

Other chord qualities on the F# root

Compare this chord with other qualities sharing the same root.