I’m not sure how to explain it, every chord that has a 7 in it (which I’m still not sure what it means) sound the same, in a kind of way. Again, im not sure how to articulate it correctly. If anyone can help, I’d appreciate it!
In: 2
Because the chord G shares *all* of its notes with the chord G7. A triad is any chord composed of the following 3 notes: the tonic (which the chord is named after), a third (either major or minor), and a fifth. In the case of the G chord, these notes would be G, B, and D respectively. In the chord G minor, it would be G, Bb, and D. A seventh chord just means you add the minor seventh of the tonic to the top of the chord. The chord G7 has the notes G, B, D, and F. See how it’s almost the same as the standard triad?
Every same kind of chord has a similar sound.
Major chords have a bright, happy, simple sound.
Minor chords have a sad, dark sound.
Diminished Chords are tense, unpleasant.
Major 7th Chords sound jazzy.
Minor 7th Chords sound moody.
I present all of this assuming that you know how to read music. If you don’t know how to read music, this may not be able to be explained in ELI5.
If a song is played in the key of C, you generally have seven notes and chords to play around with.
Notes – C, d, e, F, G, a, b
Chords –
C Major, d minor, e minor, F Major, G Major, a minor, b diminished
These chords are made up of three notes.
C is C, E, G
d is d, f, a
e is e, g, b
F is F, A, C
G is G, B, D
a is a, c, e
b dim. is b, d, f
When you have a “7 chord”. It is those three notes, plus one more. This can be the minor 7th scale degree (in C that would be a Bb) or it can be the major seventh scale degree (in C that would be a B). But it’s often the minor 7th.
Cmaj7 is C, E, G, B (major 7th from C to B)
Dm7 is d, f, a, c (minor 7th interval from d to c)
Em7 is e, g, b, d (minor 7th interval from e to d)
Fmaj7 is F, A, C, E (major 7th from F to E)
G7, also called a “dominant 7th” in key of C) is G, B, D, F (minor 7th interval from G to F)
All Maj./min7 chords will sound similar.
All min./min7 chords will sound similar.
All Maj./Maj7 chords will sound similar.
Certain chord progressions just naturally “go together”. In the key of G, the “other” chords in the progression are C and D (and Em).
A 7th chord is often used in music to “turn the corner” from the root chord, to the III chord five semitones higher than the root: G – G7 – C has us hearing the G note, adding F in the G7, and finally the E – which is the major third note of the C chord. It’s a familiar “walking down” of first two semitones, then one semitone, and that turning the corner sounds pretty much the same regardless of what key you are in.
I doubt a five-year-old would understand any of these comments. Let me try:
All musical chords are made up of three notes. When it’s just a regular chord, like C or G or A, one of those notes will be the same: a C note or a G or an A. This is called the root note.
The easiest way to turn the regular chord into a seventh chord is to drop the root note two steps — that is, two keys on the piano (both black and white), or two frets on a guitar, etc. All the other notes stay the same. So for an A chord, you drop the A note two steps to G. To get G7, your drop the G note two steps to F. For C, however, you drop it to B-flat, because in the major scale, that is two steps.
So the reason 7th chords all sound the same is because you are doing the same thing each time: dropping the root not two steps.
First, the same type of chord will sound similar across keys regardless of what type it is. Major, minor, 7, whatever. The quality of a chord comes from both the specific notes used and the intervals between them, and the latter is the same regardless of key.
Second, the 7 chord is often used for a very specific purpose: to lead into another chord. This gives it a very distinct and easily recognized color.
Let’s say you’re in the key of C major. You’re about to end the song and want to indicate that you’re about to return to C major, but create one last bit of tension before you get there. A G7 chord is not a C major chord, but it clearly indicates that you are in the key of C major, because no other major key includes all 4 of those notes. So you use that chord to lead back to it.
Musical scales have 7 notes. A major chord uses the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. A major 7th chord uses the same notes, plus the 7th note.
(The 8th note of a scale is the same as the 1st; that’s where the 8 comes from that makes the word “octave”, even though there are only 7 different notes.)
The C major scale goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, so a C major chord consists of C, E, G (in any order) and a C major 7th chord consists of C, E, G, B. It’s easier to see looking at a piano keyboard.
To do a the major scale for any note, start at the note and go up in steps of 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 keys (including the black). Combining this with the above, you can make a major chord for any note by starting with that note and going up in steps of 4 and 3 keys. For a major 7th chord, go up in steps of 4, 3, 4 keys.
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