Chords 18: E7

E7 is a genuinely beautiful chord. It sounds excellent on the ukulele, and although the fingering may look strange the first time, the second attempt will already feel much easier. Compared with our usual hand position, we need to rotate the hand slightly. Turn the back of the hand a little toward the ukulele's headstock, and the index, middle and ring fingers almost naturally fall into their proper places — the 1202 "coordinates":

I see in various videos, and also encounter on forums, that unfortunately many people use E7 as a substitute for E major. The reason is that E7 is much easier to finger than E major, so some players decide not to struggle with E major and simply use E7 instead. That is definitely not a good approach. If a song calls for E major, then E major is what we need to play. E7, being a seventh chord, contains a D note (we play it on the third string, which is why that string is fretted at the second fret). If the song does not require that note, we should not add it. A song that calls for a plain E major chord can sound very strange if E7 is played instead.

E7 can also be played using the same shape as D7, simply two frets higher:

So here is the video about E7: