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Easy Beginner Guitar Lessons – My first steps to learning dominant seventh chords on the guitar
By Mike Hayes | August 20, 2009
Guitar players often know how to play major and minor chords but
it all starts to get a bit hazy when it comes to dominant seventh
chords.
In music there’s four main chord types: major, minor, augmented
and diminished chords. These are the basic harmonic building
blocks, more complex chordal sounds are easy to identify once the
musician has a clear memory of the sound of each of the four
basic chord sounds.
Moving on from these basic set of chords the next type of chord
we need to identify is the dominant seventh chord. As I mentioned
earlier the dominant seventh chords tend to be a confusing, vague area of rhythm guitar playing.
Here’s why …the majority of guitarist are not aware of the
distinction between major seventh chords and dominant seventh chords.
Let’s start by clearing things up in the notation department: when you see a chord identified by a letter of the alphabet followed by the number seven, e.g., “A7″ this indicates that the chord is a dominant seventh chord.
When a chord is identified by a letter of the alphabet followed
by any of the following symbols … AMaj7, AM7, or Amajor 7th
this indicates the chord is a major seventh chord.
Important: The dominant seventh chord and the major seventh chord
are two entirely different sounds and are not to be confused.
In order to play music well and develop an accurate musical ear
it’s essential to know how each chord sounds and equally
important is to know how to spell each chord.
The formula for constructing dominant seventh chords is: 1-3-5-b7
This means we would extract the first, third, fifth and flattened
seventh note from a major scale to find the correct notes to create the dominant seventh chord.
Let’s get to work …
step 1. Use the major scale as a starting point
step 2. Apply of chord construction formula 1-3-5-b7
step 3. Find the appropriate notes on the guitar
In the key of C:
C major scale = C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
Remove the 1-3-5-b7 notes of the scale = C-E-G-Bb and that’s all
there is to it!
Using this same approach, here’s the spelling for the most popular
dominant seventh chords …
starting with …
G7
step 1. G major scale G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G
step 2. extract 1-3-5-b7
answer: G7 = G-B-D-F
how about …
D7
step 1. D major scale D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
step 2. extract 1-3-5-b7
answer: D7 = D-F#-A-C
another popular chord is …
A7
step 1. A major scale A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A
step 2. extract 1-3-5-b7
answer: A7 = A-C#-E-G
and one more example …
E7
step 1. E major scale E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E
step 2. extract 1-3-5-b7
answer: E7 = E-G#-B-D
In the instance were the note that has to be flattened is a
sharp; the flat cancels the sharp out with the end result being
the note is played as a natural.
You can see this musical situation in action if you take a look
at the A7 construction, where the seventh note of the A major
scale was a G#.
According to our formula we need to flatten the seventh note with
the result being a G natural.
A great idea is to play a major chord followed by a dominant
seventh chord of the same name.
Like this:
A /// | A7 /// ||
This is a good way to compare the difference in sound between the two
chords. Have fun playing your guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
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