Basic 7th Chords
- Playing dominant 7th chords
- Playing minor 7th chords
- Playing major 7th chords
- Playing songs that use 7th chords
- Having some fun with 7th chords
In this chapter, we show you how to play what are known as open-position
7th chords. Seventh chords are no more difficult to play than are the
simple major or minor chords that we describe in earlier Chapters , but their sound
is more complex than that of major and minor chords (because they’re made
up of four different notes instead of three), and their usage in music is a little
more specialized.
The situation’s kind of like that of the knives in your kitchen. Any big, sharp
knife can cut both a pizza and a pineapple, but if you spend a lot of time
doing either, you figure out that you need to use the circular-bladed gizmo for
the pizza and a cleaver for the pineapple. These utensils may not be as versatile
or as popular as your general-purpose knives, but if you’re making
Hawaiian-style pizza, nothing beats ’em. The more your culinary skills
develop, the more you appreciate specialized cutlery. And the more your ear
skills develop, the more you understand where to substitute 7th chords for
the more ordinary major and minor chords. The different 7th chords can
make the blues sound “bluesy” and jazz sound “jazzy.”
Seventh chords come in several varieties, and each type has a different
sound, or quality. In this chapter, we introduce you to the three most important
types of 7th chords that you encounter in playing the guitar — dominant
7th, minor 7th, and major 7th.
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