From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Harmony

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Dominant 7th chords

Dominant 7th chords

From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Harmony

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Dominant 7th chords

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- Dominant 7th chords play very important harmonic roles in many styles of music. First, let's talk about how to make them and then why and where we use them. If I raise the 3rd of minor 7th chord to create a major 3rd. I can create what's called a dominant 7th chord. Here's a C minor 7. If we raise the minor 3rd, which is an E flat to an E, we have a dominant 7th chord. You can also look at the chord as a major triad with a minor 7th added or as a major 3rd followed by 2 minor 3rds. Here's our C dominant 7th chord again and we see it's a C major triad with a minor 7th on top. We can also look at it starting on the root and then a major 3rd which is E then a minor 3rd which is G and then another minor 3rd which is B flat. The dominant 7 chord occurs on the 5th degree of the major scale. Here's our C dominant 7. Belongs to F major. Here's F major. The chord built on the 5th degree of F major is C dominant 7 and we'll build a chord on that C. The dominant 7th symbol is a note name with…

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