7th chords? i feel like such a moran

[Frantic_Rock]

It has a flattened 7th because the flattened 7th creates "suspense" or "tension".

A major chord with a major 7th (Cmaj7 for instance) sounds more resolved and happy.

Why does citric acid make lemons sour? Same reason why a flattened 7th makes a G7 (G dominant 7th) want to go to a C major (a 5th down - back home - to the 1 chord)

Some things you just have to learn to accept.

Why is the western scale divided into 12 steps per octave? Why can't it be 17? Try to build a guitar with 17 frets per octave, and try playing it. You'll find it's quite different....

Some things are just the way they are... But feel free to change it and let me know how it goes....

[devastone]

of the following 3 chords:
THEN WHY THE HELL IS IT CALLED A DOMINANT 7th ??!!!??

It is called the Dominant 7 because it is the 7th chord build starting on the 5th, or dominant, note of the major scale. Back in the days when dudes wore funny wigs and played harpsichords and lutes to get the ladies, they also named the notes of the major scale:

1st – Tonic- key note
2nd – Supertonic
3rd – Mediant
4th – Subdominant
5th – Dominant
6th – Submediant
7th – Leading tone
8th – Tonic ( or Octave)

This is from Music Theory 101, if you build 7th chords off each of the scale tones here is what you end up with, using C Major as an example:

The scale, C D E F G A B

1st chord: C, E, G, B = CM7
2nd chord: D F A C = Dm7
3rd chord: E G B D = Em7
4th chord: F A C E = FM7
5th chord: G B D F = G7 or Gdom7
6th chord: A C E G = Am7
7th chord: B D F A = Bm7b5 (B minor 7 flat 5 sometimes people call this a diminished, it is a diminished triad, but it has a minor 7, not a diminished 7)

M = Major, m = minor

Gibson175 answered the question well, although his point #2 could be argued, chords can be built starting on any scale degree, but I understand that he was trying to keep the concept simple (so ignore this statement if it causes you any undue trauma). But, nobody has told you why it is called a dominant 7, so, there you go.

So, what good does this do me you ask? Here's the practical , the "formula" applies to all major scales, so if you are jamming in G Major and go to a D chord, by knowing that D is the fifth, or dominant, of the G major scale, you know that if you want to add the 7th, you should use the b7 or minor 7 instead of the major 7. Same reason there is a E7 in A major, etc...

Hope this helps,
-R

[Snoogles]

thanks for all your replies
i'm terribly sorry for getting pissy with some of you

Gibson175 pretty much answered the question. not the answer i was expecting.

i haven't read thru that whole wikipedia page, cuz there are a lot of other terms that i had to look up. and i got side tracked onto other things that i didn't even know i had questions about.

[tone4days]

B minor 7 flat 5 sometimes people call this a diminished,

i have heard it referred to as 'half diminished' ... but i always call it "-7b5"

so yeah, cranky ... by extending devestone's (excellent) write up, we see that the C7 chord is in the key of F, not the key of C

but again, do not over interpret that sentence ... you can use the C7 chord wherever it sounds the way you want it to sound ... dont let theory get in the way of music

t4d

[samu]

i'm terribly sorry for getting pissy with some of you

I'm very cool with you man.

gibson175's answer was the best IMHO. There were good stuff coming from others, too.

Samu

[GoldenVulture]

- http://www.archive.org/stream/catech...srich_djvu.txt - for reference.

[Bludave]

Believe it or not other posters have answered your question very succinctly, but due to your frustration at not understanding all of it you may have not yet procesed what they have written yet.
IN some ways im glad you are frustrated with this because it shows you really want to understand music. You do need to relax a little tho, because the whole system of western music is built on a bunch of concepts that take a long time to understand and a lot of persistence. If it doesn't make sense initially, you may need to start at the beginning.
Im going to attempt an explanation, because as someone with a degree in music theory and a full time jazz musician and conservatorium guitar teacher i think understand your frustrations with the nomenculature of dom 7 chords.
However, I am afraid that if i write something that you will throw your hands up and have a tantrum like you have with the other posters. THe first thing you need to undersdtand is the concept of intervals. If you really want to get to the bottom of this you will need to do some research on your own and im happy to reccommend some avenues to explore. If you are, then send me a PM.

However you seem to want a quick and dirty answer to your problem: so here is an attempt quick and dirty explanation of why 7th chords are called that. There is a lot more to understand about chord function, but this might at least address some of your frustrations.

1. Chords are constructed from triads.
2. Triads are created by using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of any scale. There are many types of scales.
3. There a only 4 types of triads: major (1,3,5), minor (1,b3,5), augmented (1,3,#5) and diminished (1,b3,b5)
4. Chords constructed using additional voices to the triads are collectively known as 7th chords because the include both the triad (1,3,5) and the 7th degree of the scale.
5. A MAJOR 7th chord is based on the major scale and includes therefore 1,3,5 and 7...in the key of c for example, that would be the notes C,E,G and B.
A MINOR 7th chord contains 1,b3,5 and b7
Dominant 7th chords (or just 7th chords for short) are created using the 1,3,5 and flat7.
There are even diminished 7th chords that contain, 1,b3,b5 and a double flattened 7!

...now here is i think why you are getting frustrated....you want to know why the 7th chord (ie. the one with the flattened 7th) is called the 7th chord when really it includes a flat seven. Cos it seems more logical to call the Maj 7 a 7 and a major triad with a flat 7 a major flat 7 chord Right?
Heres why......its actually to save time believe it or not.
Imagine an E chord (1,3,5) with a flat 7 (currently recognized as E7).....would you call it Eb7, or even e b7? or perhaps e maj b7? Bad idea...because that seems more like its an Eb chord with the 7th on top right? So to save confusion when analyzing chord structures of songs, it had become the norm to call any chord with a flattened 7, just a 7 chord.
Heres some examples where just calling a major triad with a flat 7 just a 7 chord is easier:
standard and simple: g7,f#7,gb7
difficult and confusing: g b7 (or is that a gb7?), f#b7 (is that f sharp or f flat 7?), gb7 (is that G with a flat 7, or Gb with a seven?)

For now, just accept that major chords with a flat seven are called 7th and major chords with a regular 7th are called maj7. IN the meantime, if this confuses you still, then you need to start at the beginning and learn about intervals and keys and all that stuff. Im happy to help start at the start if you want to send a PM.

Great response! accurate & easy to grasp(IMHO)