Once you’ve mastered all of the fundamental beginner guitar chords, seventh chords offer an ideal next step to spice up basic major and minor chords with just one extra note!
In this lesson we’ll look at four distinct seventh chords with D roots, all movable shapes that can be moved up and down the neck.
Major Seventh
No matter whether they contain major, minor or diminished sevenths, 7th chords are all created by stacking thirds over a basic triad. A major seventh chord is one form of this formation and features the addition of the major seventh interval to its root note.
These chords, commonly referred to as’maj7′ chords, feature romantic tones that pair nicely with melodies with slow tempos such as Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by Tadd Dameron and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
These open chords can easily be converted to major seven chords by adding the major 7 interval. This type of maj7 chord, known as ‘maj7 in close position”, can be easily played on guitar; however, keyboard users may find them less convenient; more suitable voicings with wider-spaced chord members would work better.
Minor Seventh
While major seventh chords can add great harmonic progressions, sticking solely with them would be like building a rocket ship from square legos. To truly add texture and diversity to your harmonic progressions, other types of sevenths are necessary.
One of the more useful chords is the minor seventh chord, composed from a minor triad topped by a minor seventh note stacked atop it. This chord can sound both sad and rich at once; sometimes called diminished seventh, and written as min75 or simply with an “o7”.
Learning sevenths requires understanding triads and counting intervals, so learning their construction requires some familiarity with triads as well as counting. Once you master minor seven shapes you can apply them to any chord progression; Patsy Cline made great use of melancholy seventh chords like Patsy’s “Crazy.” Plus they make for great finger exercises for rhythm guitarists!
Dominant Seventh
As their name suggests, dominant seventh chords feature an additional seventh note – an interval that extends seven whole notes from the root note – which adds an entirely unique sound compared to that of its parent chord.
This shape can be challenging to play using all four fingers at once, so for optimal results try practicing using your pinky instead of just barring (rather than playing only barre chords).
As with major and minor sevenths, how the interval qualities of root, third, and fifth combine will ultimately define its sound. For a dominant seventh chord to have even greater complexity and give a saxophone-y sound used often in jazz tunes such as songs by John Lee Hooker or Muddy Waters for examples of this sound.
Sustained Seventh
Suspended chords are diatonic seventh chords without dominant function that serve as preparation for other harmonies, commonly used in jazz and classical music to add dissonance and tension in a progression. Suspended chords typically derive from fourth-based triads with the third replaced with the fourth (Csus4); though occasionally you might also find suspension chords voicing with two voices (Fsus2) which still constitute suspension chords.
All intervals apart from the 7th, 4, and b7 of a major scale combine to form suspended chords, so this shouldn’t be something new to learn. You likely already use suspended chords in several songs in your repertoire to add texture or create drama; they even work great with chromatic voicings and arpeggios!