Home > Guitar Theory Lessons > Guitar Chord Theory Part 3
Guitar Chord Theory
Part 3 - 7th Chords
In guitar chord theory part 1 we looked at Major and Minor triads. In
part 2 we learned how to construct Augmented and Diminished triads. These four types of chord are all part of the same "family" as triads - 3 note chords taken from the major scale.
Today we're looking at chords that contain 4 notes
- 7th chords. This is a bit trickier to grasp than triad construction,
but let's see how we get on with the diagrams and I'll try and be as
clear and to the point as possible!
In music, the 4-note 7th chords are:
-
Major 7
-
Dominant 7
-
Minor 7
-
Augmented 7
-
Half diminished
-
Diminished 7
Don't get confused at this stage with their names - you
often find with music theory that the names of chords don't really
represent how they are built from the scale. By learning to associate
the chord name and symbol (e.g. Gdim7) with the notes used in the
chord, you'll forget about how "inaccurate" the names are.
Let's get started with the first in the list, Major 7...
Major 7 chords
Major 7 chords are used a lot in jazz (in fact all the 7th chords have a jazzy/bluesy feel to them).
Remember that a major triad was simply the Root, 3rd and 5th notes from the major scale? Well a Major 7 chord is just that with the added 7th note from the major scale...
Now, if you haven't done so already, I strongly advise you go back to this page and learn the major scale patterns as they appear on your fretboard, both on the E string and A string to start with.
Later, we'll look at the major scale and corresponding chord shapes in
different shapes and positions, but it's all on that page if you want a
head start ;)
Once you've learned the major scale pattern, you should be able to pick the Root (1), 3rd (3), 5th (5) and 7th (7) from it to form the Major 7 chord...
That's G Major 7 or Gmaj7 because the root note is at the 3rd fret on the E string making it a G.
Notice how it just uses those 4 notes, unmoved from the major scale. Remember, you don't have to include a second root or 5th, but you can make the chord sound fuller by doing so.
See if you can find the major 7 chord on the A string as well. It can be anywhere as these are movable chords.
Dominant 7 chords
This is where it gets a little weird. A dominant 7 chord actually includes a flattened 7th note from the major scale. The 7th in this flattened position becomes dominant. Again, make sure you've learned the major scale pattern on the A string to make sense of the chord below...
That's C Dominant 7 or just C7. The dominant
note in a chord always over-rides any other numbers - if we see C7 we
can assume it also includes the 3rd and 5th.
Minor 7 chords
Minor 7 chords are just the same as dominant 7 chords, but the 3rd has also been flattened, making it a minor. You'll have learned that a minor triad is Root, flat 3rd (b3), 5th - well all a minor 7 chord is that with an added flat 7th.
That's G minor 7 or Gm7.
Just the same as a regular minor triad, but with an added flat 7th note!
Augmented 7 chords
I think you see where we're going with this now - in part 2, we looked at Augmented triads, well an augmented 7 chord is exactly that with an added flat 7...
That's C Augmented 7 or Caug7 for short.
The aug part refers to the sharpened 5th, and the 7 stands for the flattened 7th note from the major scale.
Half diminished chords
Half diminished? Well, you'll know from part 2 what a regular diminished triad is, but half diminished is a bit of a confusing thing to call the one from the 7th family of chords.
Just remember a half diminished chord is part of the family of 4 note 7th chords and includes Root, flat 3rd and flat 5th just like a regular diminished triad, but with an added flat 7th...
Another thing to note is we don't write half diminished chords as the name suggests, but rather with the symbolic components of the chord - see below...
That's G Half diminished or Gm7b5 (G minor 7 flat 5)
So really, it's just a minor 7 chord with a flattened 5th! Yet it gets
a name like "half diminished"...hmmm - there are different schools of
thought on why it's called that so I'll just stay out of it for now!
Diminished 7 chords
Now, this one you CAN relate the name to the chord's components. If you
think of the regular diminished triad, it has a flat 5th, and that's
what diminished means, to "lessen" or "weaken" and in music, that's the
5th being "lessened" a half step. Now, think of a diminished 7 as
"double" diminished, because with these chords the 5th is flattened as
with regular diminished, but also the 7th is flattened twice.
You may be thinking "well, that double flatted 7th is now in the position of the 6th note in the major scale" - well you're absolutely right, but in this context with the 5th being flattened into a diminished position, the rules of music take over to highlight the context, a double-flatted 7th note, a diminished 7th in relation to the
natural dominant 7th position (which was a flat 7th to begin with!)
So that's C diminished 7 or Cdim7 for short.
As I said at the beginning, don't worry yourself over why
some of these chord names sound a bit misrepresentative, just know what
notes they involve and how you take those notes from the major scale
and sharpen or flatten them.
That dim7 one is kind of irregular though, so just make it sink in as flat 5 and double flatted 7th or flat 5 and added 6th.
It's your brain after all! You'll find your own strange ways to make this guitar chord theory sink in.
Right, you should now have a good idea about how
to construct 7th chords. These chords, if you play them, are very
colorful in chord progressions and you should definitely experiment to
see if a 7th chord would get the emotion across better than a regular
triad would. Experimentation is the key.
In the next guitar chord theory lesson we'll cover
chord tensions and extensions such as added 6ths and 9ths and creating
"13th chords". Not as complicated as a lot of websites make it out to
be as long as you learn the "order of chord tones".
It's all down to how simply you explain it ;)
Use the links below and hopefully see you soon...
Go Straight to Part 4 - Extended Chords >
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