Chords are an integral component of how songs sound, and seventh chords add that extra touch of cool to them. Seventh chords can give blues songs an electric edge you can swivel your hips to!
Learn all of the common seventh chord shapes and how they can be put to work! Find some songs to practice!
Major Seventh
Major seventh chords are four note chords composed of a major triad plus an added seventh interval above its root note, producing a pleasing sound in many genres of music.
Major 7th chords are often written with the symbol “7” at the end of their name to indicate their seventh as an integral component. The spelling will depend on whether or not you use sharps/flats in the key for this chord type, as it plays such an integral part of it.
Below are the most frequently encountered major 7 chord shapes. Many of these movable chords allow for different inversions by shifting up and down the neck for different exercises; it is an ideal way to train your fingers as well as learn quickly how to traverse an entire guitar neck quickly. Play these chords along with a metronome to develop finger muscle memory for moving across fretboard at equal rates.
Minor Seventh
Minor seventh chords consist of a minor triad plus a minor seventh and are generally less tension-filled than major seventh chords, creating a more melancholic tone.
Minor seventh chord shapes shown here are often movable – you can move them up and down the fretboard for chords in any key, enabling you to play different quality chords using just one set of fingers.
Drop 2 voicings of minor 7th chord shapes shown here are common techniques employed in jazz chords, meaning that the second highest note from close chord formula has been moved down into bass region of chord. This technique is widely employed when creating minor 7th chord shapes.
Patsy Cline’s timeless “Crazy” features an A minor 7th chord that perfectly captures its delicate heartbreak. Learn this chord to add romance and soften up your music!
Dominant Seventh
Dominant seventh chords are an invaluable asset to blues music. Not quite major chords (which typically feature brighter tones), nor quite minor ones (which feature darker, foreboding tones), they form the cornerstone of many blues songs.
Songmakers use suspense notes to add tension in songs; to do this, simply add a lowered seventh scale degree to any major chord chord.
As such, they are fairly straightforward to play, often only needing your index finger on the fretboard and middle and pinkies to barre. The following guitar neck diagram shows four dominant seventh drop 3 voicings related to an E open chord root note.
Black notes correspond to root voicing; blue ones display 1st inversion while red indicates 3rd inversion. Each of these can be achieved by simply flattening third and seventh intervals in an E major triad in close position and flattening them to create strong, impressive sounds.
Mix & Match
Chord progressions sound best when they fit the melody perfectly, so selecting chords that complement its notes. This may require expanding or compressing chords accordingly, but all diatonic chords (ie the same notes found within their scale of origin) must contain in them in any case.
The first group of chords pairs well with any chord in any other group; for instance, you could easily combine chords from different categories to produce beautiful sounds – for instance playing one from group 2 after chord 3 would sound amazing.
The I – V – VI – VII chord progression creates an unresolved sound, which would not work for loop-based genres like lofi hip hop. To remedy this, chord inversions could be used to make melodies more melodic while still leading back to tonic notes. Alternately, you could try replacing this progression with one commonly found in pop songs such as The Beatles “Let It Be” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”.