You may have played seven chords before, these can be a bit of a mine field for beginnners, as there are four distint types. For more information about different types of chords see here.
| C major scale | C minor scale | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C | D | E♭ | F | G | A♭ | B♭ |
These are the most common type of seven chords, they are usually referred to as the dominant chord as they lead to other chords (the V7 chord in a progression lead to the I chord. Secondary dominant chords are used in many songs too though). They could be considered as a major, minor 7 chord. These chords have tension in them and they like to resolve (this is due to the tritone or flat 5 from the E to the B♭. The blues is often based on dominant 7 chords.
These chords have a dreamy quality to them, I often call them tropical beach chords. Usually the I and IV chords in a progression.
These chords are slightly less serious sounding than usual minor chords, they have a little extra zing to them.
The chords are fairly uncommon and sound pretty tense, they would work well with the harmonic and melodic minor scales, you often find them used in a descening run, perhaps, Cm, Cm△7, Cm7. Another example is the ‘James Bond’ chord, the Eminor9△7 (E, G, B, D♯, F♯)