7th & Major 7th Chords

In the first part of this lesson we will be looking at 7th chords. We will be using the C major scale as a reference for the development of these chords. There are many variations of the 7th chords the first one we are covering is C7.
The formula for the seventh chord is as follows. (1 3 5 7)

C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

Here are 6 examples of a C7 chord. Remember the 7th note in the major scale is flat , thus producing the 7th chord. If you take a close look at all the chords below you will see they all contain the following notes, C-E-G-B

Major 7th Chords

Now we are going to look at the major seventh chord. The formula for the major seventh is (1 - 3 - 5 - 7) notice the difference from the above 7th chords, the 7th is no longer flat. Below are six examples of C major 7th Chords.