Students learn to recognize and compose melodic structures. This course also delves into the constituent parts of triads and seventh chords.
Utilizing only two fingers, practice playing both E7 and A7 open chords – taking care not to hit the sixth string while playing A7!
Dominant Seventh Chords
The dominant seventh chord has an inimitable sound because of its combination of major triad and tritone interval. As such, its sound is strong and dynamic – perfect for creating tension before cadence back to the tonic to bring about resolution.
To play a dominant seventh chord, first ensure that you can comfortably play major triads. Add a flat 7th to this triad so it forms C – E – G – Bb; this pattern mimics our common bass patterns.
Practice this pattern carefully as each interval pair creates a different type of seventh chord as you progress down the chromatic scale with it. Knowing dominant seventh chords well can be especially useful as they’re used across many genres – classical to rock and funk alike! So master these dominant seventh chords until they feel second nature before branching off chromatically into more exotic versions of seventh chords.
Diminished Seventh Chords
A diminished seventh chord is composed of minor thirds stacked symmetrically on one another and can be challenging to spell correctly. One way of remembering their name is using letters a third apart (g, b and d) when spelling both fully diminished and half-diminished leading-tone seventh chords.
Diminished seventh chords have an unsettling, indeterminate quality that makes them ideal for conveying tension in music and providing some flair to standard chord progressions.
To invert a dim7 chord, begin with its root note and move it up an octave until reaching its endpoint; this is your initial inversion of a dim7. Repeat this process with its second and third notes for full inversions as seen below; these materials take a systematic pattern-based pedagogical approach for discussing and spelling fully-diminished and half-diminished leading-tone 7th chords aimed at high school Advanced Placement students, liberal arts college non-music majors as well as music majors; pattern recognition ability has proven itself an accurate predictor of success in music theory classes.
Major Seventh Chords
Seventh chords are four-note chords that can be stacked in close spacing to form an extra-long snowperson shape (with its bottom, two middles and head). As with triads, seventh chords have their own specific qualities that correspond with scale degrees – these characteristics distinguish each seventh chord from another and determine how a particular seventh chord sounds.
There are five distinct qualities of seventh chords, three of which involve the perfect fifth between root and fifth: dominant seventh, minor seventh and major-minor seventh chords. Two additional qualities based on diminished triads: fully-diminished seventh chord and half-diminished leading-tone seventh chords are also possible.
Addition of 7th chords is an essential step in any musician’s development, adding a sophisticated sound and opening up new genres for them to explore. There are various approaches to thinking of 7th chords; perhaps the easiest and most practical would be: major triad with an additional note that sounds like a seventh.
Minor Seventh Chords
Minor seventh chords (mi7 for short) are constructed by stacking a diminished triad with a minor seventh note on top, also referred to as an “o7” or flattened fifth chord, due to having its major third reduced from C# to C. This makes this chord somewhat melancholic and less active than dominant sevenths.
Seventh chords can be inherently dissonant, due to an additional pitch sounding one tone above their root chord. This may present difficulties when voice-leading; therefore it should be handled carefully for best results.
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