Toronto Jazz Piano Lessons: Playing 7th Chords
2024-12-15 - Alvin
Hi there! My name is Alvin Ryze. I’m a professional jazz pianist and music teacher based in Toronto, Ontario. With over seven years of experience teaching jazz, pop, and R&B piano, I’ve had the privilege of helping students develop their skills and confidence in music.
In this blog, I’ll be going over all the 7th chords you need to know to build a foundation in jazz.
The Major 7th chord is built upon scale degrees 1-3-5-7.
Let's build a C Major 7 Chord (CMAJ7):
The C Major Scale is C (1) - D (2) - E (3) - F (4) - G (5) - A (6) - B (7)
So the CMAJ7 chord is: C-E-G-B
The scale degrees to build a dominant 7th chord is 1-3-5-b7 (flat 7)
Let's build a C Dominant 7 Chord (C7):
The C Major Scale is C (1) - D (2) - E (3) - F (4) - G (5) - A (6) - B (7)
So the C7 chord is: C-E-G-Bb
The scale degrees to build a minor 7th chord is 1-b3 (flat 3) - 5 - b7 (flat 7)
Let's build a C Minor 7 Chord (Cmin7):
The C Major Scale is C (1) - D (2) - E (3) - F (4) - G (5) - A (6) - B (7)
So the Cmin7 chord is: C-Eb-G-Bb
The scale degrees to build a minor 7th flat 5 chord is 1-b3 (flat 3) - b5 (flat 5) - b7 (flat 7)
Let's build a C Minor 7 flat 5 Chord (Cmin7b5):
The C Major Scale is C (1) - D (2) - E (3) - F (4) - G (5) - A (6) - B (7)
So the Cmin7b5 chord is: C-Eb-Gb-Bb