Seventh chords can be found in many genres of music, such as blues, jazz and RnB. Like triads, seventh chords are composed of three notes built in thirds – sometimes known as diatonic chords because they contain all notes of a scale.
As soon as you start exploring seventh chords, dominating seventh chords are typically the first you come across. They tend to create tension by pushing toward their relative home chord.
Dominant Seventh
Seventh chords play an integral role in music of almost every genre, from Baroque-era classical to modern pop. Sevenths are created by stacking three thirds together into a triad and adding the seventh note from any scale (known as a tritone) onto it.
Dominant seventh chords can be identified by their distinct sharp, tense sound. Constructed on the fifth degree of any key and composed of root note, major third, perfect fifth and minor seventh, these chords possess an invigorating, lively sound.
An easy way for pianists with smaller hands to play these chords is inverted versions; this omits the 4th chord note for faster fingerwork while still creating the same sound as its parent chord. This creates the same sound but with less fingerwork required.
Major Seventh
Major seventh chords are created by adding a major interval above the root note of a major triad. For instance, Cmaj7 contains C-E-G-B notes and is a very popular dominant chord found everywhere from Coldplay to Tadd Dameron’s music.
Like triads, seventh chords can also be “stacked”, so that their notes align on adjacent lines or spaces of the staff. This configuration of chord is known as being “stacked”. When this occurs, its lowest note becomes known as its root note and all subsequent notes above it become identifiable with their generic interval (third, fifth and seventh respectively).
Major sevenths, denoted by the symbol maj7, can often be mistaken with other notations such as minor which can lead to unnecessary confusion when reading sheet music. Therefore, it’s best to learn this pattern as a chord rather than individually learning its notes.
Minor Seventh
Minor seventh chords, also known as minor seventh triads, consist of three minor triads with an additional minor 7th above root (for instance: [A, C, E] or [G, A, B]). They are commonly heard in R & B music and also prominently featured in classical pieces like Bach’s Gavotte from Partita 3.
Major seventh chords can be heard in all kinds of contemporary music, dating back as far as romantic ballads such as Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Their use can add warmth and emotion to songs.
Each interval quality has a name based on the scale note names from Step 4. In step 4, short abbreviations in brackets next to piano chord symbols indicate which notes must be adjusted upward or downward using sharp or flat accidentals, in order to ensure the seventh chords we look at in this lesson are in key with their melody.
Half Diminished Seventh
The half diminished seventh chord (also referred to as minor 7th flat five or m7b5) is an uncommon 7th chord composed of two types of minor thirds and is one of five main categories of 7th chords that do not originate in major scale.
As is typical for seventh chords, it is constructed by stacking a triad over its root note while adding an interval from C major – C minor with its seventh interval reduced by half step to B major.
A seventh interval above any root note can be created using an interval pattern consisting of minor thirds, minor seconds and major thirds – this allows you to construct a half diminished seventh chord above any root note by following this path of intervals. As with other seventh chord qualities, half diminished sevenths can also be modulated to any key simply by adding or subtracting common tones.