Chord Voicing- Major and Minor 7ths

Minor 7ths

Basically minor 7ths are a combination between a minor chord and a dominant 7th chord. If you look at examples of the A major, A 7th, A minor, and A minor 7th chords next to each other, you will see that:

To get the A 7th from the A major, you lowered a root one whole step to get the 7th
To get an A minor 7th, take the A minor chord, and lower a root one whole step

Major 7th Chords

To get a major 7th, you must take a major chord and lower a root by a half step (1 fret). To see what I am talking about, click the link below to look at examples of:
- A major next to an A major 7th chord
- D major next to a D major 7th chord
- Chord Examples

The difference between a dominant 7th and a major 7th is that the 7th is one half step higher in the major 7th chord.
Dominant 7th Chord:
- Root - 3rd - 5th - b7th (flat 7th)
Major 7th Chord:
- Root - 3rd - 5th - 7th
The Major 7th chord is used often as a substitution for the Tonic (I) major chord in chord progressions (below I have examples).

Progressions Plus

Now that you have seen how Major and Minor 7th chords work, here is how they are used in progressions to replace major chords. Below I have simple chord progressions with Major chords. Below that Major chord progression, I put a more complex progression using Major and Minor 7ths, that can be played instead of or with the major chords. (/'s represent strums. "////" is twice as long as "//")
Progression 1:
```
G                   A                   F
//// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// ////
GM7  Am7  GM7  Am7  AM7  Bm7  AM7  Bm7  FM7  Gm7  FM7  Gm7
```
If you look at the 2 chords replacing the G Major chord, you will notice that the G (Tonic) changes to a G Major 7th chord and then is raised to the 2nd (II) degree to an A minor 7th Chord. The same pattern is used for the A and F major chords. (This goes with the explanation on "Basic Chord Progressions" from lesson 4. At the bottom of that discussion, you will see where I talk about the II, III, and VI chords and how they sound OK in a progression if they are Minor chords.)
Progression 2:- Raising to the 3rd degree...
```
C                   D                   Bb
//// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// ////
CM7  Dm7  Em7  CM7  DM7  F#m  Em7  DM7  BbM7 Dm   Cm7  BbM7
```
Notice that the 2nd (II) and 3rd (III) degrees are Minor chords. In this last example, #'s (sharps) and b's (flats) were used. This is done because of where the II, III, IV, etc. chords lie in relation to the Tonic note. The II chord is a whole step (2 half steps or 2 frets on a guitar) above the Tonic note. The III chord is a whole step above the II chord, or 2 whole steps above the tonic. The IV chord is a half step above the III chord, or 5 half steps above the tonic. This explains the # in the progression above:
```
I   II  III IV  V   VI VII
D   E   F#  G
```
Progression 3:- Raising to the 4th degree.
```
Bb                  C                   Ab
//// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// //// ////
BbM7 Cm7  Dm7  EbM7 CM7  Dm7  Em7  Fm7  AbM7 Bm7  Cm7  Dbm7
```
Notice that when the progression reached the 4th (subdominant) degree, that a Major chord (EbM7) or a Minor Chord (Fm7 and Dbm7) could be used. (This relates to the discussion of parallel minor chords which states that the I, IV, and V chords can be Major or Minor.)
Once again take these "rules" with a grain of salt. Rules are made to be broken.

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