Harry Potter The Moives

If you typically use a lot Major and Minor Triad chords in your songs, one way to spice up your songwriting would be to start adding in some Seventh chords.

Triads are the most common type of chord construction. They contain the Root of the chord, which is where the chord will get its letter name, such as G or D. And they also contain the 3rd and the 5th of the chord. You basically just pick a note in the scale to start with for the root of the chord, and then add every other note in the scale until you also have the 3rd and 5th. (The difference between major and minor chords is that in a minor chord the 3rd will be a half-step (one pitch) lower, or closer to the root)

This is very easy to conceptualize on a piano keyboard, but it is a bit tricky to visualize on the guitar fretboard. I usually explain chord construction to my guitar students using a keyboard, and then I let them know that on the guitar the theory is the same, but the fretboard patterns can be a little confusing at first.

Any of these three notes within the chord can be doubled an octave higher, and the order of the notes can be switched around. This is referred to as the particular Voicing of the chord. If you are a guitar player you have probably already realized that there is more than one way to play a G chord, by switching between open chords and bar chords for instance. This switch changes the order and the octave doublings of the root, 3rd, and 5th, which creates a new voicing of the same chord.

A Seventh chord will contain the three notes of a Triad and continue up the scale to also add the 7th. This 7th will be the last note before the Root occurs an octave higher.

There are two kinds of Seventh chords derived from major triads and one kind derived from minor triads. A Major chord with a 7th note occurring a half-step below the octave is called a Major Seventh chord. A Major chord with a 7th note occurring a whole-step below the octave is called a Dominant Seventh chord. Major Seventh chords have a pretty sound while Dominant Seventh chords (also know simply as Seventh chords) are quite dissonant sounding. All Minor chords that contain a 7th will be called Minor Seventh chords, and will have 7th notes located a whole-step below the octave. They can be thought of as having more of an open sound.

If you write Rock, Country, or Folk music you are most likely using a lot of Triads. You can now try changing some of the chords to Seventh chords to spice up your songs.

If you are writing R&B or Jazz you probably already have a lot of 7ths in your chords. One way to change the flavor and add variety to your chord sounds within these styles would be to reduce the chords down to triads.

Blues songs are composed almost completely of Dominant Seventh chords. By striping these down to Triads and playing them with a straight feel, you can give your songs a quite different sound. This particular method has been the genesis of many great Rock songs. Another way to change up a Blues progression would be to change it into a Major Key chord progression by making the I and V chords Major Seventh chords.

So add a few sevenths, and take a few away. Open up some new sound palates for your songs with sevenths, and you will quickly find yourself in Seventh Chord Heaven.