Seventh chords were covered in the last lesson, but for anyone who’s just reading this post with no context, seventh chords include a third above a triad. In the root position, the intervals are all lines or all spaces. There are many varieties of 7th chords but the main ones are the Major, Dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished sevenths.
Seventh chords are calculated based on the qualities of the triad and the seventh. The quality of the seventh chord is always determined by the quality of the triad first, then the quality of the seventh from the root. These combinations include Major triad with Major seventh (Major), Major triad with a minor seventh (Dominant), minor triad with minor seventh (minor), diminished triad with minor seventh (half-diminished, m7b5, or ø7), and diminished triad with a diminished seventh (fully diminished).
7th Chords – Major Scale
7th Chords – Minor Scale
Spotting the Roots of the Inverted 7th Chords
7th chords are spelled in root position and three inversions. You can always find the root by finding the interval of a second – the upper note in the interval is the root. Other helpful tips for finding or hearing the root of a 7th chord are as follows:
- In the 1st inversion, the bass note wants to resolve up
- In the 2nd inversion, the 5th of the chord will be the bass note and the bass seems to want to go down