What is a 7th chord?

This lesson is for more advanced guitar players, to learn more about our beginning guitar lessons click here.
It is the 3 notes (or more) of a chord with the 7th note of the scale added.

What is a chord?

Let’s first go back to what a chord is, it is 3 notes or more played together. We usually create chords by using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale. So, if we are creating a “C” chord, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale are C E and G. To make this chord a 7th chord we just need to add the 7th note of the scale – which is the B.

Are there different types of 7th chords?

There are a few types of 7th chords, for this lesson we are only going to talk about two of them — the Major 7th and the Dominant 7th.

1. The major 7th uses the 7th note of the scale, using the C chord as an example, the major 7th is usually notated like this Cmaj7.
2. The Dominant 7th also uses the 7th note of the scale but makes the 7th note flat and It is notated as C7.

Pictures of how to play the Cmaj7 and the C7 (the Dominant 7th) in open position on the guitar.

Pictures of how to play the Cmaj7 and the C7 (the Dominant 7th) as bar chords on the 3rd fret on the guitar.

Pictures of how to play the Cmaj7 and the C7 (the Dominant 7th) as bar chords on the 8th fret on the guitar.

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