Seventh chords can add strength to a cadence or create tension in music, so this lesson will focus on five essential types of seventh chords for piano:
These chords can be extremely useful to any pianist – be they beginner or experienced – regardless of genre of music they may come up in such as blues, jazz, RnB or classical.
Major Seventh
Starting off a song with a major seventh chord produces an appealingly romantic sound compared to its dissonant counterpart – this is due to it containing notes from all three octaves of the scale in its composition.
Seventh chords can be distinguished by the qualities of their triad and seventh, inversion (described under Inversion and Figured Bass), and notation using the major chord symbol “maj7”.
An easy way to play a major seventh chord on piano is to start with a major triad and add one half step below its root note the major seventh note that falls one half step below. Looking at a major scale interval table will reveal this information by counting half-tones or semitones between root note and third, fourth and seventh notes.
Minor Seventh
Seventh chords are popularly employed in jazz, blues, R & B and film music. Their more complex sound than that of triads adds depth and emotion to chord progressions; there are five qualities common among seventh chords such as major, minor, dominant, half-diminished and fully diminished that all include one or more triad chords as their foundation plus an added seventh above its root.
Minor 11 chords can be constructed by adding an 11th to a minor 7 chord or stacking an extra minor third on top of it. They add a suspended sound to your minor seventh chords, often used to add melodic tension.
The minor seventh is an often-used chord in many styles of music ranging from modern pop to romantic Claude Debussy piano music, often used for love songs and romantic pieces. To play it correctly you need to lower both third and seventh semitones a semitone each and it will produce its characteristic warm sound. To do this, simply lower both third and seventh semitones by one semitone each.
Half-Diminished Seventh
Similar to major 7th chords, these feature a dominant seventh but omit the 3rd of the triad – creating an uncomfortable feeling and instability. Instead, this component may be replaced with either a suspended 2nd (called suspended second in music terminology) or more commonly with diminished fourth (known as diminished fourth).
This chord, known as an viio7 (or i7 for short), serves as the secondary dominant of an overall key or subdominant in minor. Additionally, it may function as a minor dominant chord leading to tonic notes in minor cadences.
Diminished 7th chords are symmetric and composed of multiple minor third intervals stacked on top of one another. Common examples are Cdim7, Ebdim7, Gbdim7 and Adim7 chords.
Another way of visualizing a half diminished seventh chord is as a minor seventh with an inverted fifth, such as Am7b5. You could also write it without the 7, but still consider it a seventh chord since its root note is seventh scale degree.
Whole-Diminished Seventh
As with triad chords, seventh chords come in various qualities. These include diminished, half-diminished, minor, major, perfect and augmented chords. Each quality has its own note interval table that details which notes make up each chord; furthermore each note also has a short interval number or abbreviation (known as an interval name) to identify where in its respective scale it belongs.
Diminished seventh chords have an asymmetrical structure and are created by stacking four minor third intervals (three semitones) across an octave, forming dissonant and unstable sounds, often creating tension and anxiety in music. They’re often used as transitional tools between keys or tonic chords; major and minor keys alike, adding dramatic flair and texture.