Playing Seventh Chords Cleanly

[9lbShellhamer]

Hi Gang,

If I'm playing BG I tend to use 5-4-5-x (D); 7-6-7-x (E), etc for my 7ths if I'm chopping. The angle always feels funky and I really don't like this chord.

What are your favorite sevenths for clean, pleasing, rhythm playing?

Perhaps my wrist/finger angle is just off but I can play a lot of weird chords and 7ths always bother me...On guitar they sound rich and diverse but I tend to play triads or fifth variations with mandolin because I just don't like the tone of the 7ths I'm playing.

[bohemianbiker]

2 chord shapes I use a lot for chopping are 5576 (C7) and 7587 (G7). They can both be moved up and down the neck for whatever 7th chord you need. It took me forever to be able to use the 2nd shape, but I find it handy. bb

[Steve Lavelle]

I play a D7 as 2-4-3-5, slide up and down the neck as needed.

[AlanN]

These shapes (with E dom7 as example):

1-open-2-open
4-2-5-4
4-6-5-7
7-6-5-4
7-6-7-7
7-9-11-12

among others. It all depends on what I had for breakfast.

[David L]

All of the shapes listed have value. I use the three note shape (5-4-5-x) a lot, don't know what you don't like about it. The biggest difference between the shapes is where the 7th is. In 5-4-5-x, the seventh is the lowest note, which makes the 7th more subtle and "chunkier". The 5-5-7-6 puts the 7th as the highest note, which makes it more prominent and brighter. Often the shape determiner is the position of the chord before or after. Because of the "need" for the 7th to resolve, voice leading can be more important than with other chords. Sometimes I just try to keep the chords in the same few frets as the surrounding chords.

Resolving 4-2-5-4 (E7) to 2-2-4-5 (A) lets the tritone (the highest 2 strings) resolve the smoothest way.

[DavidKOS]

Because of the "need" for the 7th to resolve, voice leading can be more important than with other chords.

I make no claim to being a Bluegrass expert, but other than the rhythm, isn't voice leading what chord playing is all about?

[SincereCorgi]

I use diminished triads interchangeably with dominant chords, e.g. for a D7 use the F#-A-C triad. The bass and guitar are getting the roots for you anyway, and the voice leadings tend to lay out well. I am not a huge fan of four-note mandolin chords because the E string makes them so bright.

[bayAreaDude]

I play a D7 as 2-4-3-5, slide up and down the neck as needed.

I do the same, but omit the high duplicated fifth on the e string. I almost always use 3 note voicings.

[Ted Eschliman]

If you don't mind a little transposing, try 3-note chords with Four inversions of the same V7 chord.

[Ted Eschliman]

If you really want to get fancy, learn to play 7th chords up the neck with a "filler chord" between each inversion. You could play these all night for blues:



Download: Two Page PDF

[9lbShellhamer]

If you really want to get fancy, learn to play 7th chords up the neck with a "filler chord" between each inversion. You could play these all night for blues:



Download: Two Page PDF

BINGO! Thanks!

[JeffD]

I have a less precise style. I don't bother trying to get every note of the chord in - especially if the chord is just passing through. I often do stuff that gives the 7th note, and another note - i.e. imply the chord and move on.

Landing chords, endings of phrases and such, I get the whole chord, but 7ths are often used to move along, and so I do what ever makes moving along easier.

Nobody has ever noticed.

[David L]

I make no claim to being a Bluegrass expert, but other than the rhythm, isn't voice leading what chord playing is all about?

"Voice leading" has nothing in particular to do with Bluegrass. "Voice leading" means the way a particular note (voice) in a chord moves to a corresponding particular note in the next chord. For example: the leading tone (the 3rd in a dominant chord) wants to resolve to the tonic. If the leading tone jumps to a tonic in a different octave, that is not very smooth voice leading.

[BrianWilliam]

This is rad. Thanks!

[BrianWilliam]

The 7th inversions that is.

[Don Stiernberg]

The "moving through" that Ted shared is cool--Bingo indeed!

Of the various shapes for dominant seventh chords, I find the ones I use most are the triangle shaped with the seventh in the bass(lowest note)as in your 5-4-5 D7 and 7-6-7 E7.

Next most used is the one with the third of the chord as the lowest, say 4-3-5 for G7

An easy and fun changing exercise is to work down the neck alternating those two shapes. For example 7-6-7 E7 to 6-5-7 A7 to 5-4-5 D7- G major as in Salty Dog or Don't Let the Deal Go Down..

Next try going up to the octave..A7 on fret twelve. Do the alternating shape thing all the way down, naming each chord as you hit it. Cyclical dominants. Circle of fifths. Around the horn. Turnaround. Call it what you will, it's in a gazillion tunes.

If you flatten your third finger across the E string on the triangle shape that adds the fifth of the chord. If you do that on the third-in-the-bass shape you add the ninth, perhaps too colorful for bluegrass, perhaps not...

[UsuallyPickin]

Saint Donnie and Pope Ted have spoken........ Learn thy 7th's that Ye may move them around leading the melody. Play ten II IV I changes and say two Hail Jethro's ....... R/

[David L]

I use the alternating pattern that Don explains on Jethro Burns' "Flaky". It's a great tune made up of almost all circle of fifths.