There are various seventh chords to discover on guitar. Each has its own sound that can add color and variety to your songs.
All seventh chords can be created by adding an interval of a tone (or semitone) above a triad. Varying this interval quality can alter its sound, giving rise to new melodic possibilities in your chord.
Dominant Seventh
A dominant seventh chord contains both major third and minor seventh intervals from any scale, creating a happy-sad sound ideal for blues music. Dominant sevenths often appear in 12-bar blues chord progressions.
These chords are straightforward to play as they utilize major shapes that you have already learned. To form a dominant seventh chord on any note on the guitar, simply add a flattened seventh interval one fret below or two frets away from its root’s octave – either one fret below for minor seventh or one fret away for dominant seventh chords.
This chord can also be used to modulate between keys, making it a staple in rock band songs like The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” or John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom.” Furthermore, its dissonant interval creates tension and adds memorable melodies through tension-inducing tension-building dissonant intervals created between root and flattened seventh strings.
Major Seventh
Major seventh chords are an indispensable extension of the three-note triad, featuring a major third, perfect fifth and major seventh (all intervals 7th above the root). These chords add a unique jazz sound to music compositions.
Gmaj7 or Cmaj7 chords can also be found in numerous popular songs for their full, hearty sound. If you play guitar, experiment with playing Gmaj7 and Cmaj7 chords to see how they alter the personality of a piece of music.
The moveable Cmaj7 chord shape is an excellent way to learn these types of chords since you can play it in any key. Additionally, all moveable seventh chord shapes offer similar flexibility; by moving the chord up one fret its root note will shift and create all sorts of different maj7 voicings across the neck – especially useful when creating strong cadence endings, such as adding one to America’s “Tin Man”. Doing this will really bring out its singing potential!
Minor Seventh
By adding seventh chords to your guitar chord vocabulary, you will add new harmonic color and emotion to your songs. These chords are composed of three-note triads with the addition of one note at an interval of seven from their root; this seventh note may either be major (Major 7) or minor (Minor 7).
Most textbooks refer to chords based on the type of triad and seventh that constitute it, for instance Cmaj7 would consist of a C major triad (one, three and five) with a major seventh above its root.
However, musicians often refer to this chord simply as the “7 chord.” Aside from an additional note added onto a major triad chord, these seventh chords can easily be recognized and named. As well as being simpler on the ears, 7 chords are very versatile chords which can be found both jazz and classical music genres.
Diminished Seventh
This week’s Guitar Chord of the Week is a diminished seventh chord, which can be very effective and also offers unique properties.
Diminished seventh chords are constructed by layering minor third intervals to produce dissonance and create tension in music; they’re often used as modulation chords between keys.
Given that a diminished seventh chord doesn’t correspond to any particular key, its root note can be altered by moving it up or down by one semitone (three frets). This process is known as common tone modulation.
This technique is extremely helpful as it enables you to craft unexpected chords that modulate to any key, even distant ones, for added tension in your music. Unfortunately, however, this technique may become contrived after too much use.