The major 7th chord adds a fourth note to the major chord. Notice there is only one fret’s difference between the two chords, but the major 7th chord has a more floating, reflective sound.

They are so commonplace that we take the theory behind them for granted. Here are five 7th chords, the theory underpinning them, and some ideas for modifying them ...

The minor/major 7 chord has a spooky sound when used on its own. It is however a popular compositional technique to use the m/maj 7 in a descending bass line over a minor chord and many songs, ...

A study suggests that minor and major seventh chords are the happiest sounds in music, but today’s songwriters are ditching them in favour of simple minor chords. But why does this matter?

Country legend Johnny Cash once rejected the offer to record this Tom Petty song because of a single chord in the progression.

I didn’t know then that it was a major seventh chord, favorite of the bossa-nova masters, but I later learned that Paul McCartney, like me, didn’t know that’s what it was, either, when he ...

The dominant-7th V chord, containing the root, Major 3rd, perfect 5th, and lowed 7th (♭7) craves resolution to the tonic. (See Figure 5 below.) ...

Wrong! This would make a major 7th chord. For a regular 7th chord, we need root, 3rd, 5th and b7 – but to say 'a flat 7' would be too easy to confuse with the chord A b7, a completely different ...

7th chords are great for spicing up progressions where simple major and minor chords may not have quite enough personality. In this example a basic I–IV–V progression is boosted with major 7th ...