What's The Difference Between a Dominant 7th, a 7th Chord and a Major 7th Chord

by Charley Wyser

The other day, I received an email from someone looking at my video lesson on learning a Simple Blues Lick in the key of F.

They really enjoyed the video, but were confused because they did not know the difference between a Dominant 7th, a 7th chord, and a Major 7th chord.

Since the blues lick is in the key of F, let me explain it in this key.

First, lets go through the notes of the F Major Scale and number the tones.

F(1) - G(2) - A(3) - Bb(4) - C(5) - D(6) - E(7) - F(1)

To form an F Major 7 chord, play the tones 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 (F, A, C, E). When you play these notes, you are playing a Major 7th chord because you are playing an F Major chord (1, 3, 5), and you are putting the 7th tone of the scale (Major 7th) at the top of the Major chord.

This chord is now called a Major 7th chords since it contains 1 - 3 - 5 - 7.

To form an F Dominant 7th chord, we can take this same Major 7th chord (1, 3, 5, 7) and flat the 7th tone of the scale. In other words, we can play F, A, C, and Eb.

We have an Eb in this chord because we have flatted the 7th tone. That is, instead of playing E, we now play Eb.

This Eb is the difference between the F Major 7th and the F Dominant 7th chord.

So the tones for the Dominant 7th chord are 1 - 3 - 5 - b7.

What about the difference between the F Dominant 7th, and the F7 chords.

Well, this one is very easy to answer.

You see, there is no difference. They are one and the same.

The formal name of the chord is the F Dominant 7th chord. The informal, or abbreviated name is F7.

So when you see the chord, F7, you still play 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 tones of the Major scale.

Well, that's it for now.

Continue to have fun on your piano adventures!

Charley Wyser
easypiano.com

To view Free Online lessons, click here

How To Form More Advanced Chords Using The Numbers 1 - 7

by Charley Wyser

From a previous post, we learned to form our 4 basic chords - the Major, minor, Augmented and diminished in the key of C.

1)To form a C Major chord (C chord) we play the notes
1 - 3 - 5 (C E G).

2)To play a C minor chord, we play
1 - b3 - 5 (C Eb G)

3)To play a C Augmented chord, we play
1 - 3 - #5 (C E G#)

4)To play a C diminished chord, we play
1 - b3 - b5

For the more advanced chords, I will give you a chart. If you wish,
print out the chart and keep it near you piano or keyboard for
reference.

I am going to introduce a new term to you - "Intervals".

The intervals mean the note numbers in the scale.

Again, we will apply these numbers to the key of C.

Chord -> Interval -> Key of C example

C Major 7 -> 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 -> C - E - G - B

C Dominant 7 -> 1 - 3 - 5 - b7 -> C - E - G - Bb

C Minor 7 -> 1 - b3 - 5 - b7 -> C - Eb - G - Bb

C Minor 7b5 -> 1 - b3 - b5 - b7 -> C - Eb - Gb - Bb

C Diminished 7 -> 1 - b3 - b5 -bb7 -> C - Eb - Gbb -Bbb(A)

You will notice on the Diminished 7 chord there is a Bbb.

This is called a double-flat. This is actually the same as the 6 in
the C scale.

So another way of thinking of the Diminished 7 chord is to play
1 - b3 - b5 - 6

But you would not teach it this way, because technically this is
incorrectly stated.

One interesting thing to note is that each of these four note chords is based on one of
the four basic chords.

The Major 7th and Dominant 7th chords are both based on the Major chord. If you look
closely at the intervals, you will notice that both of these chords contain the
numbers 1 - 3 - 5 (Major chord).

Similarly, you will notice that the Minor 7th chord contains 1 - b3 - 5 (minor chord).

Lastly, both the Minor 7b5 (also called a Half-Diminished 7th), and the Diminished 7th are
both formed from the diminished chord because they contain 1 - b3 - b5.

The top note (7th tone) is going to be what differentiates the more advanced four-note chords
from their basic root chords (Major, minor, Augmented, diminished).

If you are interested in finding out more about chords and how they move, be sure to look at
my program, The Secret 7 Numbers of Successful Piano Playing.

As they say, "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words".

Until then, Keep Having Fun!

Charley Wyser
easypiano.com

To view my Free online lessons, click here

To listen to podcasts, click here