Learning Dominant 7ths in all keys

Dominant Seventh Cycle Lesson

Now that you've played down the line and straight necessary using several dominant seventh chords, let's make an effort to learn them all.

Introduction to the Dominant Seventh Cycle

In order to do this, we're going to go around what's called a dominant seventh cycle. There's a good reason for doing this because a lot of tunes feature chunks of this cycle, often in the bridge.

The Dominant Seventh Cycle

Here's the dominant seventh cycle, and let's start by playing root position E7. We're going to go around all 12 keys, alternating root position and second inversion.

• Rather than reading those shapes, work them out until you get back to E7 an octave lower in the left hand.
• You might want to do it the opposite way around, or it could be the right hand as well, starting with second inversion.

Important Note: Remember, they must all have flattened sevenths, so you need to get really familiar with those shapes.

Simplification of Chords

Of course, be aware that you can simplify them and just play tritones, thirds, and/or the 7th and 3rd.

• When you move from E to A, you simply need to go down a semitone.
• You can play the whole cycle by going down a semitone with every chord.

By playing the root in the bass, you get to hear the true sound of the chord. Even just those three notes create a great sound, doesn't it?

Missing Elements: It doesn't feel like there's anything missing, even though we are missing the fifth. When we take the root out, we're also missing the root.

Building Thicker Shapes

If you want slightly thicker shapes, you can start putting notes back in, but not necessarily where they were before.

1. Start with E7 like this:
   • Put the root on top rather than on the bottom.
   • Keep the E note and play the tritone for A.
2. Move down to D:
   • Put the root on top, keep the root there, move the tritone down a semitone.

Playing Technique

Make sure you've got those shapes under your fingers because you'll be playing them in the left hand during the dominant seventh workout, and in the right hand, just exploring mainly arpeggios and broken chord patterns.

The Dominant Seventh Workout

In this workout, there are two parts to this cycle:

Part 1: Walking Basslines

1. The first time around the cycle, you'll work on walking basslines with those chords in the right hand.
2. The shapes you might want to think of are:
   • Notes: 7, 3, 5, 3, 7, root.
   • Pattern: 7, 3, 5, 3, 7, root.

The bottom two notes are always the tritone.

Left Hand Walking Bass Line

In the left hand, we're going to be playing a walking bass line with two bars on each chord.

1. Pattern:

   • First bar: root, three, five.
   • Second bar: do a run up.
   • Remember, this connects any of these chords in the second bar to take you to the new chord.

2. Now you're on A:

   • Play root, two, three.
   • That's a scale pattern rather than a chord pattern.

3. Then we'll run down to D:

   • The two A bars follow the A Mixolydian scale, taking us straight to D.

4. Repeat the same pattern:

   • Practice the bass line around the cycle before proceeding to anything else.
   • Two bars on each chord: D, run up G, 1, 2, 3, back down the scale to C, and follow that same pattern throughout the cycle.

Transitioning to the Left Hand

When you get to the end of the cycle, you'll need to transition to the left hand where the bass comes in.

1. The first part starts with drums only.
2. In the left hand, you'll play those shapes we just looked at.
3. In the right hand, you can explore some arpeggio pattern preparation.

Final Reminder: Make sure you know all those arpeggios for all those chords.

Let's go!