Tag: seventh-chords

Teach Yourself Music Theory – 35.) Building Seventh-Chords from Scales

Now, we are going to be covering where all of these different kinds of seventh-chords appear within a key by building them off of different scale degrees.

First, we will take the major scale:

Notice how there are only four different seventh chord possibilities: the major seventh, minor seventh, half-diminished seventh, and dominant seventh. This should be pretty easy to memorize.

As for the natural minor scale, it is just a reordering of the major scale:

Now, we add the leading tone for the harmonic minor scale:

The harmonic minor scale, because of the raised leading tone, creates an augmented seventh as well as a fully-diminished seventh. Also, we have a seventh-chord we have never discussed before… the minor-major seventh which is a minor triad with a M7 interval from the root on top:

Finally, the melodic minor scale:

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Teach Yourself Music Theory – 34.) Inverting Seventh-Chords

If you remember all there is to inverting triads, inverting seventh-chords should be no problem at all. On the other hand, if you still have trouble with inversions – I suggest you look over past posts before starting with this one.

As mentioned in the past, inverting a chord is like reordering the chord members… but this time, a note besides the root is in the bass.

Whereas a triad had three different inversions (one for each chord member), a seventh-chord will have four different inversions:

  • Root Position – where the root is in the bass; noted with a “7” symbol
  • First Inversion – where the third is in the bass; noted with a “6/5” symbol
  • Second Inversion – where the fifth is in the bass; noted with a “4/3” symbol
  • Third Inversion – where the seventh is in the bass; noted with a “4/2” symbol

These inversions can be noted with Roman numerals (below the staff) or in lead-sheet notation (above the staff):

Try writing various seventh-chords, identifying them, and then inverting them. Also, listen to how each of the inversions sound.

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Teach Yourself Music Theory – 33.) Identifying Seventh-Chords

Before we begin, let’s review:

Previously, we have talked about triads, which are chords comprised of three different pitches, with the notes (from lowest to highest) are a third apart from each other.

If we add another third on top of the triads, we get a seventh-chord, which is a chord comprised of four different pitches with the notes (from lowest to highest) are a third apart from each other and span a distance of a seventh.

The alteration of a triad to a seventh-chord will look like as such:

Now, just like triads, seventh-chords have different names depending on the intervals between each chord member. However, if you can identify the triad the seventh-chord is built from as well as the extra interval above it – you will be more comfortable with identifying triads.

Let’s take a look:

  • Augmented Seventh = Augmented Triad + M7 above root
  • Major Seventh = Major Triad + M7 above root
  • Dominant Seventh = Major Triad +m7 above root
  • Minor Seventh = Minor Triad + m7 above root
  • Half-Diminished Seventh = Diminished Triad + m7 above root
  • Fully-Diminished Seventh = Diminished Triad + d7 above root

This is how they would look (with the third of the chord placed an octave above):

Another way of being able to distinguish between the different seventh-chords is through this diagram:

In comparison to the Major Seventh chord (which we will call “home base” due to its lack of alterations), all the other seventh chords have a pitch raised or lowered.

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