Dominant seventh arpeggios and inversions

Music Lesson: Dominant Seventh Chords

So, having covered major seventh chords, we're now going to move on to dominant seventh chords. These only differ by one note.

Understanding the Dominant Seventh Chord

• C major seven: If we flatten the seventh, remember we're dealing first of all with notes from the major scale.
• C7: Has a B flat, which isn't in the C major scale. That's why we call it a flattened seventh.

Key Point: This chord is usually referred to as a dominant chord, which is a type of chord.

Don't get confused between major sevenths and dominant sevenths.

You might want to think of it this way:

1. C Triad: Move the root down a semitone gives you the major seventh.
2. Move it down a tone gives you the flattened seventh or the dominant seventh.

Practicing the Chord

Get used to playing that as an arpeggio as well, like we did with the major seventh.

• Here it is with the chord in the left hand, all four fingers in use with the little finger on top.
• Again, that's great for strengthening the little finger.

Now you need to practice that on any of the chords that you need down the line.

Chord Progressions

The next pieces we're going to be doing are:

• C7
• B flat 7
• A flat 7
• G7

Get familiar with those arpeggios. The chord shapes are all in root position for the time being, but I also strongly recommend that you practice your inversions.

Inversions Routine

For instance, for B flat 7, let's do it in time at 124 clicks the chord.

• Once you've sorted out the fingering, which is pretty much the same as for C7, let's try two clicks of the chord.
• You might want to do that in the left hand.

And don't forget to play also:

• A flat 7
• G7
• A flat 7
• G7