G7 chord

[musicallyyours]

Dear seniors, I'm working on G7 chord. According to my Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course - All-in-one Course, the G7 is written as BFG only. But everywhere else, G7 is 4 notes namely GBDF.

May I know if BFG is technically correct as a G7? And any reason to remove the D by the author(s)?

Thank you very much.

[maxim3]

Indeed, a complete 7th chord, such as G7, should have four notes, but they may be in any order. 'root position' in this case would be G B D F.

G is the root note, B is the third, D is the fifth, and F is the seventh. If you start from G and count up the scale, you will see how that works out.

Your B F G is probably functioning as a G7 in its context, but as you see it is incomplete. But why is it still considered a G7 chord? Because in chords like this, some notes are more important than others. In seventh chords, the fifth is the least important; you can leave it out and the result still sounds like a G7 chord. But if you leave out the seventh, then it is no longer G7 at all. And if you leave out the third, giving G D F, it will still function as a G7 in most contexts, but I'm not sure if you could really call it a G7 chord. (Personally I'd refer to it as a "malnourished 7th" but I have no qualifications.)

This chord theory stuff is a wee bit complicated, because of different naming conventions and so forth, but it's not the hardest thing in the world. I encourage you to search out a bunch of tutorials and explanatory pages on the Web, read a little bit every day, and it will all make sense soon. There are hundreds of such pages on the Web. Try this one for example:

https://www.musictheory.net/lessons

[musicallyyours]

Thanks for explaining and I will read up as suggested, please. Good day.

[keypeg]

I've seen this question before.  Apparently they want to make things "easy and instant" for adult learners, so the make a chord that is easy in the hands to play, and give only as much (incomplete) information as needed for the immediate task of playing the chord.

The G7 chord has four notes - G, B, D, F - but one note can be left out and still give the functional effect of this V7 chord - the tensions and direction that will lead to its resolution to the Tonic. (It's not the only role the the chord can play, but "traditionally" that's where a lot of music starts, and it's common).

[pianoplunker]

Dear seniors, I'm working on G7 chord. According to my Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course - All-in-one Course, the G7 is written as BFG only. But everywhere else, G7 is 4 notes namely GBDF.

May I know if BFG is technically correct as a G7? And any reason to remove the D by the author(s)?

Thank you very much.

That is correct. The G7 chord will have 4 notes.   and those can be inverted for the sake of voicing or fingering or both. The reason to leave out a note might be for the sake of not playing too many notes or how it resolves.   It is very common for chord structures not to use every note - it is where the art comes in.