7th Chords Revealed: Comparing the Four 7th Chord Types
If you are working through Yellow Guitar Books, Volume I, you may have played some of the Dominant 7th Chord Inversions on page 62. If you don’t have the book, printable pdf’s of these Dominant 7th Chord Inversions are available on “The Practicing Guitarist” section of this web site as a free download.
Once you have become familiar with the inversions, the idea is to convert each of the inverted fingerings from Dominant 7th chords to Major 7, Minor 7 and Minor 7b5 chords. This is no small task to be sure, however by learning the chord fingerings this way, you will not only have many useful chords to use on their own, but you will also have laid the ground work for using the very same chords as “Chord Substitutions”. Chord Substitutions, allow the informed guitarist to greatly expand their chord vocabulary without learning new chord fingerings. Remember: Keep Things Simple!
Below are two sets of Chords featured in Yellow Guitar Books, Volume I. This illustration will help you see the four 7th Chord Types compared to one another. The Root of the Chords (1) are indicated with a red dot. The fingerings are noted. The Chord Tone (Scale number from the Major Scale) is shown in orange. The left hand column shows the Root on the E string chords and the right hand column shows the Root on the A string chords.
Play both sets from top to bottom and notice which notes change when switching from one to the next. Try to remember where each of the “Chord Tones” is located.
This comparison will help you to understand and incorporate the 7th Chord Inversions into you guitar playing. Don’t forget to try all of this in different keys. Have fun!
There are also Practice Session Plans for learning Dominant 7th Chord Inversions on pages 72 and 73 of Yellow Guitar Books, Volume I.
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