Seventh chords are triads that incorporate an additional note at a seventh interval above their roots, each providing their own distinctive flavor.
There are various ways of naming chords, but most commonly employ Roman numerals for the triad and 7 as the seventh chord name to help distinguish their different qualities.
Major
Seventh chords can add depth and character to many timeless classics from rock, jazz and funk – as well as being essential components of expanding harmonic range on piano.
As you begin to recognize various seventh chord shapes, they’ll come alive in your mind and on the keys of your piano. Learning these complex structures takes practice and patience – but will be well worth your while once mastered!
Just like their triadic counterparts, seventh chords can be identified by their ROOT, QUALITY and INVERSION characteristics. We will focus on five traditional seventh chord qualities described by classical theory.
Major, minor, dominant and half-diminished sevenths are the four most often-used seventh chords in music, usually perceived as romantic and serene compared to its dissonant cousin, dominant seventh. Major seventh is widely used today and even dates back as far as Romanticism; composers like Claude Debussy used it in “Claire De Lune.”
Minor
Chords are composed of thirds, and seventh chords add one note which is one third higher than the fifth note. A C major seventh chord consists of its root note (C), its third note (E), and fifth note (G). We will later explore extensions such as ninth, eleventh and thirteenth notes but for now let’s just focus on basic seventh chords.
Minor seventh chords can be formed by adding a third to a diminished triad, making this chord suitable when seeking more subdued sound than with dominant seventh.
The iv seventh chord is an effective way to add tension in music. It is a symmetrical seventh chord with its fifth being half a step down from its root; therefore it creates tension. Mambo jazz often employs this chord; check out this video lesson to learn a great mambo song featuring minor seventh, major seventh, and half-diminished seventh chords!
Dominant
Frequent in blues and rock music, dominant seventh chords consist of the first three notes from any scale as well as a flattened (lowered by half-step) seventh note – similar to major seventh chords but with a more intense sound due to the flattened seventh.
These chords often serve to bring focus back to the tonic (root) chord. For instance, one of the Rolling Stones’ iconic hits “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” begins with a C7 chord before shifting into G as its tonic chord.
Building a dominant 7th chord on any note can be achieved using an easy shortcut: begin with a major triad, add a minor third on top, and repeat this process for all remaining notes of the scale until all seven notes of it have been covered by dominating 7ths (also called drop 3 chords due to dropping their 3rd highest note of closed voicings). These guitar neck diagrams show four drop 3 dominant seventh voicings: black notes correspond with root voicing while blue and red represent first inversion and 2nd inversion versions respectively.
Suspended
Sus chords, also called unisons without third, create an undefined sound that adds tension or space into any progression.
Sus chords can often be found in both funk and jazz music, for instance The Police’s hit, Message in a Bottle opens with four Fsus2 or F9sus4 chords which play across the song for an engaging feel.
In the video below, a presenter explores how these chords can add tension and space to a progression, as well as how a dominant 9sus4 on the root key can create a II-V cadence.
He then shows how to play these chords on guitar by stacking 4th intervals to form 7sus4 shapes – an extremely effective technique for adding tension to songs and simple to implement on an instrument.