Seventh chords by ear
Recognise the dominant seventh and the other seventh chords by their colour.
The dominant seventh
A seventh chord is a triad with one more third stacked on top: from the bottom note to the top one is a seventh. Four notes instead of three make the chord richer and more tense.
The most common is the "dominant seventh chord": a major triad and a minor seventh. It sounds like a question and pulls insistently towards a resolution, into the triad a fourth higher.
A dominant seventh on G3 resolving into a C major triad
Practice: Triad or seventh chord?
Other seventh chords
- "major seventh chord": a major triad and a major seventh. Soft, dreamy, jazzy, with no urge to move.
- "minor seventh chord": a minor triad and a minor seventh. Warm and thoughtful.
- "half-diminished seventh chord": a diminished triad and a minor seventh. Dark and unstable.
- "diminished seventh chord": four notes a minor third apart. The most tense and dramatic.
A major seventh chord on C4
A minor seventh chord on C4
A half-diminished seventh chord on C4
A diminished seventh chord on C4
The easiest way to tell the dominant seventh from the major seventh is by feel: the dominant seventh demands to go on, the major seventh can sound like an ending. The top note of the major seventh rubs a semitone against the octave of the root.