Bmaj7 is an accessible piano chord with a major sound that makes for great jazz playing because it fits easily into many different progressions.
Its foundation lies in a major triad, but has its seventh note of its corresponding major scale lowered a half step to produce a bright sound rather than its characteristic dark feeling.
Key of B Major
B Major is considered the saddest musical key, used to express feelings of grief, sorrow and loss. Additionally, B Major songs often represent unrequited love.
Over this lesson, we will be exploring the key of B Major and the chords it can generate. The first chord we will construct will be a 7th chord; these can be constructed by taking the 1st, 3rd, 5th notes from any scale (which correspond to its first through fifth notes) as the building blocks for creating them; we then add one or more seventh notes – for this chord Bb, D#, and F# would work perfectly.
Learning this chord requires mastery of finding each of its notes on a piano keyboard, in order to play various inversions and octaves of it. To find its root note (B), head down to the bottom row of keys on your piano keyboard, and find D# and F# in its middle row; once these two notes have been located you will be able to construct it into chord form.
Not only should you know how to construct this chord, but also its use is equally essential. You can utilize this chord to create various progressions – both minor and major; additionally you could even use it to form dominant and minor triads.
To play this chord in a song, it is necessary to know both its first and second inversions. To do so, start on the Bb chord before adding D# until the Bmaj7 chord forms; to play its 2nd inversion, start on B major then add F# till it forms BMaj7 chord.
If you would like to gain more knowledge of chords and how they are used in music, visit our Chord Encyclopedia. Here, you will find in-depth descriptions for some of the most frequently occurring triads and seventh chords as well as tutorials that can assist with playing these chords on piano or guitar.
Intervals
The bmaj7 piano chord is a major seventh chord composed of intervals root, major third, perfect fifth and major seventh. These major seventh chords tend to sound more open and pleasing than minor seventh chords; additionally they often provide more stable tonality compared with other types of chords.
The major seventh is a chord’s most dominant note and also its highest-sounding note, featuring its fullest sound in many popular songs and jazz pieces alike; additionally it is often employed in pop, folk and rock genres as well.
To create a maj7 chord, one needs the major third, perfect fifth and major seventh of a major scale in which they’re working from. You can also create one by stacking a major triad on top of a minor triad; this will result in a chord with major third and major 7th notes; it is known as a maj7-flat chord.
One alternative way of creating a major seventh chord is using a diminished interval instead of minor sevenths; this produces the same harmonic results, but with less tension. A typical diminished major seventh chord consists of A, Eb and G as its notes.
This chord provides an ideal opportunity to practice finger positioning on piano keys, as its large leap between its root and minor seventh requires strong muscle memory in order to set your fingers correctly for playing it.
This keyboard diagram illustrates a bmaj7 chord in its root position with finger numbers for both hands. The left-hand fingering pattern is 5-3-1 while on the right hand it’s 1 2 3 5 and this diagram can serve as a useful resource when playing this chord across fretboard and piano keyboard, including its inversions.
Major Triad
Chords are one of the simplest elements in music and make up much of what we hear on songs today. There are various kinds of chords; among the most basic and fundamental is a major triad. A triad is simply three notes stacked on top of one another that may or may not be major or minor in scale; an example would be Bmaj7 which includes B, D# and F# notes as its components.
The bmaj7 chord is a major 7th chord that can be used in numerous progressions and add a unique sound to any composition. These powerful chords add drama to songs with dark or dramatic themes.
To play a major seventh chord, you simply need to locate the root note of a triad and add its seventh note from above it – this gives them their distinctive sound and makes them particularly popular in jazz music where they’re frequently played as solos or vocal accompaniments.
A major 7th chord may also be played in 2nd inversion, meaning that its middle note does not form part of its chord structure. This chord can be notated using 6/4 notation with the 6 placed above 4 on a staff diagram – sometimes known as B major triad in six-four position.
If you want to gain more understanding about the major triad and its significance, read this article on its topic. It contains lots of pertinent details as well as suggestions on how best to employ it harmoniously.
Once you understand how the major triad works, building other types of triads, such as the bmaj7 will come easily. To see this in action, use the interactive piano chart below as a guide and feel free to move the triads around on the keyboard until you discover different combinations of notes.
Minor Triad
A chord on a piano is composed of notes played together. A basic chord consists of four notes, including its root note, its bass or “bass note,” third interval note or fifth interval note, major, minor diminished or augmented depending on quality of interval between roots and third or fifth notes or between root and fifth notes and root note respectively.
To create a bmaj7 chord on the piano requires all five of your fingers being available for playing at once. It can be quite challenging, particularly with your left hand; for optimal results the index finger should be on the first fret of A string; middle finger on second fret E string and ring finger on third fret G string (coordination is essential to successfully making all these movements without altering your fingers’ positions). To achieve success at building this type of chord.
The bmaj7 chord can be difficult to play with your right hand due to its need for extreme stretching of the pinky finger – keeping it rigid without bending can be challenging! Therefore it is crucial that you practice regularly playing this chord, and also learn to utilize all four hands efficiently when playing piano.
To gain a full appreciation for how a bmaj7 chord works, it’s necessary to grasp the concept of minor sevenths. In order to do this, it is vital that you learn scale rules as they pertain to various chord types – this will enable you to play more complex chords like the bmaj7 and discover new sounds while improvising.
The bmaj7 chord is a diatonic seventh chord, meaning it is constructed using scale tones in its key of origin. To determine which note intervals to use for building it, refer back to step 4’s table of triad chord quality abbreviations where each short abbreviation represents one scale note used as its root in making up this chord quality; see piano diagram below for final chord names and interval short names.