Exploring 7 chords on piano is key to expanding your harmonic range, as they define the mood and texture of music across most genres.
To create a seventh chord, stack a major third on top of a dominant ninth and then lower its fifth by one half-step to get a minor seven flat five chord.
Dominant 7th Chords
Dominant seventh chords are created by adding a note which is one seventh interval above the root of a major triad, creating tension and dissonance – they’re prevalent across most genres of music!
Dominant 7ths (also referred to as tense sevenths) are a favourite chord among jazz musicians. Composed of major third, perfect fifth and flat seventh notes stacked together into intervals that create the distinctive sound, this chord makes up many jazz tunes.
C7 chords are written with a 7 following the name, as they’re commonly found in blues and rock n roll music – this is because dominant seventh chords are often utilized as dominant sevenths for those trying to tap their toes! Carl Perkins famous early blues track “Blue Suede Shoes” used D7 and E7 chords to achieve that iconic toe-tapping sound.
Minor 7th Chords
Minor 7th chords create tension within songs by taking a major triad and adding an interval above it called a minor seventh (in this example a C major triad with an added minor 7th would contain C-E-G-Bb as its root note).
This type of 7th chord is easy to play and creates a jazzy sound in any musical piece, which makes them popular choices in jazz music, R & B and many popular songs.
This chord can also be used when creating cadences, creating powerful endings to phrases. I recommend studying all the various 7th chord types available so you can apply them all together when writing songs with more complete musical vocabulary! Jordan. PS: Don’t forget to practice these chords out with this great song designed for rhythm and fingerpicking skills development!
Major 7th Chords
Once you have mastered major and minor chords, it’s time to explore more complex tones – this is where seventh chords come in! They are created by adding an additional interval to a triad, each having a distinctive sound.
A major 7(#11) chord can be created from a major 9 chord by adding an 11th interval above its root; this jazzy chord works particularly well in funk progressions.
Seventh chords come in five varieties, each of which has its own sound. To create them, start by drawing the root note of a triad on the staff and adding notes a third, fifth and seventh above it (think of drawing an extra-long snowperson) this will form the basic structure for any quality of seventh chord you might compose; from here you can apply any accidentals necessary to alter individual notes into chord tones for more expressive results – this way creating many different kinds of seventh chords with various emotions!
Bass Lines
Bass lines are at the core of every infectious groove. Writing bass lines can be immensely satisfying and fulfilling; yet finding an approach may prove tricky at first.
An effective bass line depends on creating individual patterns of rhythm that set it apart from everyone else’s, telling its own unique tale.
Seventh chords are formed by taking a triad and adding a diminished seventh nine semitones above its root to produce a dissonant sound, usually used to add tension or excitement in songs or jazz music.