Seventh Chords

We have an A major chord. We know triads are made of 3 notes, stacked in 3rds, but what if we stack another note on? another 3rd?

A maj

A C# E

A maj7

A C# E G#

Key of A major

Now we have an A maj7 chord, and we now know how to build maj7 chords. They are stacks of 4 notes, using the structure: 1 3 5 7.

Lets look at other maj7 chords.

E maj7

E G# B D#

C maj7

C E G B

More types of SEVENTH CHORDS; MIN7

Emin7

Gmin7

Fmin7

More min7th chords

and Dominant 7th

Minor

You can do this with the augmented triad as well, which will produce some very odd sounds.

Groundwork for creating 7th chords. All examples in C

1 3 5 b7

1 b 3 5 7

More types of SEVENTH CHORDS;

Fmin

maj7

B dom7 or B7

Diatonic seventh chords in C major

Diatonic seventh chords in D major

Not all music is written in the key of C, so it’s important to look at music in other keys. Your eyes learn to see suggested keys through seeing accidentals written on the staff. The reason I like to put so many examples in C is because it is the key signature of 0 flats and 0 sharps, making it ideal to teach clearly.

Functions of the chords are still the same.

Tonic