"Minor Seventh Chords Are
Packed With Potential!"

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Minor Seventh Chords pretty much always want to move to another chord, which gives them the characteristic of being both complimentary and energy-driven. Let's have fun with them...

If you already have become familiar with the minor triad, this is easy as pie. If you have yet to learn the triad, please take you time and do so here

Okay, here's how to arrive at this chord from its related triad...

Firstly, here's what the minor triad looks like:

seventh-chords-cm



See that key furthest to the right? In this case, we're using the C minor, so the one furthest to the right is G. Okay, from that G, simply climb up (to the right on the keyboard) three half steps to arrive at the 7th of the chord.

That's it!

Here's what it looks like on the piano keyboard:

seventh-chords-cm7



You're using the same fingering as for the major seventh and dominant seventh - your 5, 3, 2, and 1 (left hand).and 1, 2, 3, 5 (right hand). In other words, both hands use your thumb, index finger, middle finger, and pinkie.

Play the chord and listen. Play the C minor triad. Now play the C minor seventh. How would you describe the difference? There's no right or wrong answer - your answer is correct for you. The important thing is you are allowing your ears to do what they do best - hear!

By the way, in music this chord, like the other 7th chords, has a shorter symbol by which it is recognized. Actually, there are three different symbols that are quite popular, and they all mean exactly the same thing. They are:

* Cmin7

* Cm7 (notice lower case "m" - important!)

* C-7 (think of the word "minus" sounding kind of like "minor")

Have you already learned the dominant seventh chord? The reason I'm asking is this: if you play a dominant seventh all you need to do is lower the second key (for C7, that's E) from the left one half step and you've got the minor seventh chord! Now that's easy!

Even if you haven't yet learned the dominant 7th, you can quickly see the comparison between the two chords.

A couple of interesting things about this chord:

* It's sound has a feeling of potential motion. In other words, it wants to move to another chord. Incidentally, one chord it loves to move directly to is a dominant seventh.

* You're not likely to find it to be the last chord in a song. If you do, it's pretty rare.

Go ahead and have some fun playing around with this chord - play it in other keys, play the notes separately, apply piano boxing to it, and use the sustain pedal on your piano for added dimension.

Take pleasure in knowing that, once you've mastered minor seventh chords, you've taken another major step on your journey toward greater musical achievement!

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