Let's create a C dominant seventh as an example. But really, you just need to remember Major Triad + 3. So the full formula for a dominant seventh chord is 4 + 3 + 3. To turn your major triad into a dominant seventh, you'll stack a minor third above your major triad.

If you're not confident with major triads yet, you'll want to start by learning about triads first, then practice your triads until you have them memorized. To build a dominant seventh chord, it's important that you're very familiar with major triads. No time to read right now? Pin it for later! In chord notation, you'd see this chord labelled as C7. Now add a B flat to the chord (that's the note that is a minor seventh above C) and you've created a dominant 7th chord on C. Simply put, a dominant seventh chord is 4-note chord that consists of a major triad with a minor seventh above the root note.įor example, take a C major triad. Keep reading and you'll learn what dominant seventh chords are, how to create them on any note, how to use them, why to use them, and how to practice them.

This post is all about the dominant seventh chord (also called the major-minor seventh chord).

A seventh chord is a 4-note chord that consists of a triad with an additional note added a seventh above the root. There are actually several different kinds of seventh chords. Tired of the same old sound from the same old triads? Learn how to use dominant seventh chords (also called major-minor seventh chords) to take your piano playing to the next level! Once you understand this lesson for a cheat sheet click here Chord Formula's and get the bottom 2 images.Disclosure: Please note that this article contains affiliate links, and that means that I may earn a commission if you buy something through my links. You will notice below there are some notes like Cb(B) if you look at the musical scale there is no sharp or flat between B and C or E and F, therefore Cb is a B. Yet say we want to make a minor chord, we would simply flatten the third note so major is C E G and E is the 3rd note of the scale so we change it to an Eb (E flat) it is that simple. We then attach numbers to the scale so C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, F is 4, G is 5, A is 6 and B is 7, as the scale has seven notes, then we take the root (C as we are making a C major chord - D if you wanted to make a D major chord) then count to 3 which is E then count to 5 which is G so the notes for the chord are C E G. So to make any chord we take the scale of the chord so for a C major chord we take the C major scale which is C D E F G A B. Please note the following notes / chords are the same G# = Ab and A# = Bb and C# = Db and D# = Eb and F# = Gb. How do we know what notes make up which chords ? All the notes that make up the major, minor, 7th, 6th, augmented, dominant 7th, diminished, diminished 7th Chord for beginners.

Maj min chords