Seventh Chords

The next most common chord types that a guitarist would come across would be the (7th) seventh chords. Basically, seventh chords are comprised of 4 notes and are structured similarly to the major and minor chords. The toughest part in learning seventh chords in guitar is that there is currently no standardized method to name them. Personally, I had come across a couple of ways in which the chord is written on tabs, song books or chord dictionaries. This is the main cause of confusion in when many guitarists play the seventh chords (e.g. dominant seventh). I hope to address this issue once and for all in this lesson.

Major Seventh Chord

Firstly, let’s understand how the major seventh chords are built. Using the C major scale as an example,

The C major seventh chord (Cmaj7) is basically a C major chord (root, third & fifth) + the 7th note of   the major scale. The Cmaj7 chord comprises of the notes C-E-G-B.

The major seventh chords are represented in short by many different standards. Here are some the more common ways of listing major 7th chords . (M7, Maj7th, 7M or ⌂7)

Minor Seventh Chord

Similar to the major seventh chord, the minor seventh chord is based off the major scale.

The minor seventh chord consists of the (root, flatted third & fifth) + the flatted 7th note of the major scale. The only difference from the major seventh chord is that there are 2 flatted notes in the formula. The Cmin7 chord comprises of the notes C-Eb-G-Bb.

The minor seventh chords (Cmin7) are represented in short by many different standards. Here are some the more common ways of listing minor 7th chords. (m7, min7th, 7m or -7)

Some popular major and minor 7th chords that you might have already encountered:

Now that we have been through the theory part of the lesson, lets get on to some applications of the seventh chord. Typically, major and minor seventh chords are relatively stable and are often found in jazzy songs. On the other hand many guitar players throw in the occasional major and minor 7th chord to break away from repetitions and to spice up chord progressions in rock, country and folk tunes.

To get a feel of how major and minor 7th chords sound, listen to this jazz example.

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Dominant Seventh Chords

Dominant seventh chords are the main culprit for causing confusion in many guitarists. By default, when you hear guitar players refer to seventh chords, they are referring to the dominant sevenths unless specified otherwise. Dominant seventh chords are used and can be found in popular songs, jazz and blues. These chords pack a distinct flavor and causes dissonance in songs. As a result, dominant seventh chords are also used very often in key changes during a song. Typically, after the dominant 7th chord is played, it is followed up by the root chord in the scale. ( For example, in the key of Cmajor, after the G7 dominant chord is played, it is usally followed up by the root chord ,C major )

Note that a dominant seventh chord is not the same as a major seventh chord. Using C again as an example, the C dominant seventh chord is formed by a C major chord (root, third & fifth) + the flatted 7th note  of the major scale. The C dominant seventh chord comprises of the following notes C-E-G-Bb.

Alternatively, it can also be formed by simply lowering the 7th note of a major seventh chord by a semitone. The most common ways of listing dominant 7th chords is C7.

“Hey Jude!” is one of the most famous songs by the Beatles that uses the dominant 7th chords. Check out it out here.

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Learning chords may seem tricky and confusing, especially for beginners. In the free guitar lessons here, we try and make everything as simple as possible for guitarists like you to learn more effective. Keep those feedbacks coming in as it motivates us to write and create even better lessons for you to learn guitar online.

Cheers!