Major chords have long been associated with happiness and joy, yet have you ever considered why minor scales work so well over these major chords?
Major chords are defined as triads that contain a major interval in their third tone. If a melody descends through the minor scale, any raised scale degrees will return to their diatonic forms and thus the major chord will no longer function correctly.
Triads
Triads form the cornerstone of most chord progressions. Each triad consists of three notes stacked upon one another; with its lowest note being known as its root and middle note being its third; then on top is another note called its fifth; major chords built with do, re, and sol (1, 4/14) being major chords while minor ones built from mi, fa, la (1 1, 1) are indicated with lowercase “mi”.
Major and minor triads differ primarily in their interval between root and third: in major triads the third note is major; for minor chords the third tone can either be major (flatted) or minor (flatted), producing darker notes in their chords. Augmented triads contain major third notes but raise fifth tone by half step for an augmented fifth; these chords can often be found used in jazz and classical music to pose questions or build suspense and tension.
Dominant Seventh Chords
As their name implies, dominant seventh chords are composed on the fifth degree of the scale. Similar to major triads, dominant seventh chords contain three notes – root, third and fifth – but their seventh note (C-B in this instance) lies a whole step below its root (which produces dissonant intervals known as tritones).
Opposite of their seemingly nostalgic associations with pop music, dominant sevenths are powerful chords in and of themselves. While their tension may make you queasy at times, dominant sevenths tend to resolve back into the tonic (I) chord over time.
If you want an easy way to build a dominant seventh chord quickly and efficiently, just take any major triad and add a minor third on top. This formula is also used when building minor triads so shouldn’t be too challenging to learn.
Sustained Seventh Chords
Building triads and seventh chords often results in an array of major, minor, and perfect intervals. If you listen carefully to a minor ii chord – C, E, G – when compared with its major iii counterpart (D-F-A), for example, then counting semitones between them will show that there’s an obvious distinction.
Human League’s My Funny Valentine features a striking example of a minor major chord, featuring CmMa7 with an ascending chromatic line above the bass that ultimately resolves to Bb.
Minor chords stand out due to their weak resolution back to the tonic, due to the diatonic minor scale’s absence of leading tone similar to major scale. To combat this shortcoming, musicians adjust scale degree 77 of diatonic minor scale in order to create a diminished triad on a major seventh called “viio.”
Minor Seventh Chords
Minor Major Seventh Chord is an example of tertian harmony. Tertian harmony occurs when there is an interval of exactly three notes between successive chord tones – this distance being known as “interval”.
To create this type of chord, we begin with a minor triad and add a major seventh tone – leaving a resultant chord known as Cmin(maj7) or simply C.
Like other seven-chords, a minor major seventh chord’s quality depends on how it functions in context of chord progressions. Depending on its construction method, seventh chords may sound either dissonant or consonant depending on their dissonance levels.
Therefore, it is crucial to understand how chord-tones function and where they occur in a progression. Doing so will enable you to consciously use different upper structure chord-tones when soloing improvised soloing concepts so that chords you play sound as harmonious as possible – this also requires knowledge of scale degrees.