Music Lessons, Little Rock
Chord of the Week - Major 7th grips
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Major 7th chord grips sound beautiful, when used in the right context (ex. Great when used fingerstyle but not so good in a Thrash Metal song). You will find these most often in jazz and pop tunes.
To build a Major 7th chord, start with the major triad - Root, Third and Fifth of any key. When you have those three notes, add the seventh interval and viola, you have the notes for your Major 7th chord.
Using the key of A major, those notes would be A (root) - C# (third) - E (fifth) and G# (seventh).
Here are four root position* Major 7 chord grips.
* Root position - the A note will be the lowest note in the chord.
Practice Ideas
- When practicing, always be aware of the root location and try to be able to play the grips up and down.
- These are closed position grips, which means you can move them to any new root and play any major seventh chord you choose. For example. Moving the first grip from fret 5 to fret 3 will give you G major 7. Moving grip 2 up 3 frets to the 10th fret will give you C major 7. Try calling out any key at random and see if you can find all four major 7 grips.
- To change the chord from a Major 7th to a Dominant 7th (used more in blues and rock), flat the seventh degree. You now have four root position Dominant 7th chords.
Have fun and practice!
guitar guitar lessons guitar lessons in little rock little rock guitar lessons chord of the week chord grips major seventh fingerstyle thrash metal practice ideasdominant seventh jazz pop triads
Major 7th chord grips sound beautiful, when used in the right context (ex. Great when used fingerstyle but not so good in a Thrash Metal song). You will find these most often in jazz and pop tunes.
To build a Major 7th chord, start with the major triad - Root, Third and Fifth of any key. When you have those three notes, add the seventh interval and viola, you have the notes for your Major 7th chord.
Using the key of A major, those notes would be A (root) - C# (third) - E (fifth) and G# (seventh).
Here are four root position* Major 7 chord grips.
* Root position - the A note will be the lowest note in the chord.
Practice Ideas
- When practicing, always be aware of the root location and try to be able to play the grips up and down.
- These are closed position grips, which means you can move them to any new root and play any major seventh chord you choose. For example. Moving the first grip from fret 5 to fret 3 will give you G major 7. Moving grip 2 up 3 frets to the 10th fret will give you C major 7. Try calling out any key at random and see if you can find all four major 7 grips.
- To change the chord from a Major 7th to a Dominant 7th (used more in blues and rock), flat the seventh degree. You now have four root position Dominant 7th chords.
Have fun and practice!
guitar guitar lessons guitar lessons in little rock little rock guitar lessons chord of the week chord grips major seventh fingerstyle thrash metal practice ideasdominant seventh jazz pop triads
Good lesson - great to see others sharing their musical knowledge.
A tip would be to play these chords with a bass player and so you leave out the root of the chord yourself. It may sound unusual at first, but the the bass player taking care of the root, the result is actually a better sound.
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Rootless voicings definitely are a must-have in your chord arsenal once you can visualize where the roots are.
Commons substitutes for the root include the 9th and the 6th. You must keep the 3rd and 7th as that will identify your chord quality, major or minor (maj 7th / min 7th).
You can also remove the 5th as that is another interval that the bass player has covered.
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I really love to know how to play the guitar, and thanks for that tutorial you have posted.
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