Lesson 21 - Seventh Chords

Bored with G, C, and D? Tired of those same old sounding Barre chords? Then we have the chords for you. Ok maybe seventh chords need not such a cheesy intro but they can add some spice to your guitar playing if it is feeling a little mundane. There are three types of seventh chords we need to talk about before we begin to experiment; the 7th, the major 7th and the minor 7th. All can be equally as useful but have very different sounds.

The first type of seventh is the major seventh. To make a 7th chord we simply add the seventh note of the major scale into our chord. Let’s take a look at a C maj. 7th. The seventh chord of  the C major scale is B. It is a half step down from C. By adding this to our chord we get C, E, G, and B. One way to play it is like this.

The next type of seventh chord we need to address is simply the seventh. The seventh is still a major chord like the major but the seventh is a whole step down instead of just a half step down. In the example of an E7 chord it would add a D to the chord giving us E, G#, B, and D. It can be played like this.

Finally for those of you feeling a little darker, our last seventh is a minor seventh. The min. 7th is almost identical to the seventh in that it has an added seventh that is a whole step down. But is it different in that it is added to a minor chord. In the example of Dm7th we have an D, F, A, and C.  It can be played like this.

Now try to figure out for yourself different ways to play and utilize these seventh chords. In a later lesson we talk about implementing sevenths into your barre chords

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