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Seventh Chords

Seventh Chords
Seventh-Chord Inversion
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Seventh Chords

Seventh chords are made up of a triad and an added seventh:

The quality of the seventh chord is determined by the quality of the triad and the quality of the seventh:

If both the triad and the seventh have the same quality, the name of the quality will be the name of the seventh chord. There are only two seventh chords where the triad and seventh do not have the same quality: the Dominant 7th and half-diminished 7th.

Triad	Major	minor	Major	diminished	diminished
Seventh	Major	minor	minor	diminished	minor
Chord Name	Major 7th	minor 7th	Dominant 7th	diminished 7th	half-diminished 7th
Abbreviation	Maj. 7	min. 7	Dom.7	dim.7	half-dim.7
Symbol

To construct a seventh chord, just construct the triad and then add the appropriate seventh!

Construct and identify some seventh chords:

Next Page: Seventh-Chord Inversion