Learn to play seventh chords on piano to add depth and complexity to your music. These four-note chords are easy to read and suitable for most genres of music.
Seventh chords are four-note chords composed of major triads with one extra note added in. We will examine three types of seventh chords: Major, Minor and Dominant in this lesson.
Major Seventh Chord
Seventh chords are often the first set of four note piano chords people learn. They’re very common and used in all kinds of music genres; major seventh chords feature one extra note added that is reduced by half step to create the harmony.
This adds class and depth to a chord, making it more usable across different genres of music. Furthermore, voice leading techniques allow transition from one chord to another without dissonance or loss of harmony or dissonance being lost.
Formula for this kind of seventh chord is straightforward and straightforward: root + major 3rd + perfect 5th + major 7th. Often written as “b”, or reduced by one semitone – making this chord more approachable for beginners who don’t wish to become too complex with their chords. Practice this chord like any major triad!
Minor Seventh Chord
Minor seventh chords add another lovely element to our major and dominant triads, adding color and emotion while maintaining that unmistakably major sound of bottom triad.
Learning how to play these larger chords will greatly assist your improvising and songwriting. Once you learn to dissect them (along with other chords such as 9ths and 11ths) they become much more manageable for new ideas.
These four note piano chords are frequently the first large chord family that people learn, consisting of the root note with optional sharps or flats and the number seven as its third note (usually written as Gm7) plus 7. We will also explore inversions during these lessons so it is important that you familiarise yourself with those concepts as we progress.
Dominant Seventh Chord
This chord can be found both classical and modern piano ballads, often creating tension that needs to be resolved to resolve onto its tonic (first note) chord.
To play a dominant seventh chord, begin by creating a major triad made up of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes from your scale. Add in an octave below the top note – for C this would be B flat – before adding another note an octave lower (e.g. C).
To play this chord on piano, simply place your first finger on the root note of a major triad, followed by the third finger placed on its fifth note to complete its formation and form its seventh note. Although initially this may feel awkward, with practice your fingers will adapt and stretch over time.
Half Diminished Seventh Chord
Half Diminished Seventh Chords can be found in Latin jazz music and add a warm feeling to piano chord progressions. They are very common types of seventh chords you will hear today as well as dating back as far as romantic music such as in Claude Debussy’s “Claire De Lune.”
Like triad chords, seventh chords come in various types that vary according to the quality of their chord notes stacked or overlapped – these qualities include diminished, minor, major, augmented and perfect chords.
Each chord quality can be created by stacking intervals of a third on top of one another. For instance, to produce a major seventh chord you add one major third above the root note (in this instance C), resulting in notes C-E-G in its composition. Lowering this to create a minor seventh with the help of flatted 7ths produces half diminished sevenths (Cb).