seventh chord

Seventh chords are four note chords built by stacking thirds on top of a root note. They're called seventh chords because the top note in the stack is related to the root by a seventh interval. Seventh chords are essential in functional harmony for the role they play in dominant sevenths.

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom In classical and popular music, there are five types of seventh chords commonly encountered: the major seventh chord. the major-minor seventh chord (also known as a dominant seventh chord) the minor seventh chord. the half-diminished seventh chord.

7ths are commonly used in jazz and blues to add softness or tension to regular minor or major chords. In more modern music, Neo-Soul artists like Thundercat and Anderson. Paak use a lot of 7ths, as do many Neo-Soul, Deep House and Hip-Hop artists who want to carry a jazzy or bluesy aesthetic.

In music theory, a minor seventh is one of two musical intervals that span seven staff positions. It is minor because it is the smaller of the two sevenths, spanning ten semitones.

The difference is the kind of 7 you use. A "regular" G7 (also called a "dominant seventh" chord) is a G-major chord with the minor seventh added, so it's G B D F. A "Gmaj7" or "GM7" is a G-major chord with the major seventh added, so it's G B D F#.

Dominant seventh chords contain a strong dissonance – a tritone between the chord's third and seventh. Dominant seventh chords are often built on the fifth scale degree (or dominant) of a key.

The major 7th chord is created by adding a major seventh interval to a major chord and is often used in jazz and fusion music. The minor 7th chord is created by adding a minor seventh interval to a minor chord and is often used in pop and rock music to create a more melancholic feel.

In blues music, dominant 7th chords are used to create tension and release. The use of dominant 7th chords is what gives blues music its signature sound and emotional feel.

But sometimes it's written as M7. A minor 7th chord is usually written m7, with a lowercase m, and that indicates a minor triad with a minor 7th, e.g. G Bb D F. A dominant 7th chord is usually written as just 7, and that indicates a major triad with a minor 7th, e.g. G B D F.

The Work. Whereas the C7 chord is a major triad with a flatted seventh, the Cmaj7 chord includes the triad plus the major seventh. So, remember that a C major triad includes the root (C), third (E) and fifth (G), as shown in Example 1, and Cmaj7 just adds the seventh (B), like in Example 2.

There are five qualities of seventh chords that appear in diatonic music: major seventh, dominant seventh, minor seventh, diminished seventh (also called fully-diminished), and half-diminished seventh.

The diminished 7th chord is used in a similar way in minor keys, typically to create more tension over the 5 chord. In the key of A minor for example, E7 would be our dominant chord, based on the harmonic minor scale.