A Simple Method For a Beginner To Learn Guitar Seventh Chords Fast!
Dear fellow guitarist,
Make sure to review the first part of beginner guitar chords before starting this lesson.
If you did, let’s start with:
What Are 7th Chords?
The following video explains what 7th chords are clearly from Dave Heimbauer’s Point of view:
If you want to learn guitar faster and Dave’s teaching style resonates with you, sign up for a free trial of Guitar Tricks here to access even more lessons.
How to Learn 7th chords quickly:
Instead of learning seventh chords as new shapes, I want you to look at the chord diagrams below and read my notes next to them.
In most cases, you only have to remove one finger or change one pressing point to play a seventh chord on the guitar.
There’s a detailed explanation below and some exercises for you to download and implement these chords on, So when you play a song, you’re already armed with some experience with seventh chords.
What Do You See In The Pdf File:
- Guitar chords diagrams = A drawing of the guitar fretboard on which we draw a chord shape.
- Shape = The way you put your fingers on the fretboard and press to get a specific guitar chord.
- Fingers = are marked as balls with numbers inside.
- 1 = first finger, 2 = 2nd finger etc…
- A red ball with a number = chord’s ROOT.(this note determines the chord’s name.) The number still indicates the finger.
- X = Don’t play this note or string.
- O = play an open string, meaning you fret the string even though you don’t press any note. The open string is a note to itself.
- O = In this case, the open string played is also the chord’s root (pay close attention to that because it will benefit you on later shapes.)
Some Guide Lines For These Beginner Guitar Chords:
- If you’re a beginner at guitar chords, please go over the first part of beginner guitar chords.
Why?
Because you first want to get the fundamentals right.
This way, your hands will gradually get stronger, and your grasp of your guitar fingerboard will also develop correctly.
Try too much too soon, and you’re left with nothing. Makes sense?
Next, the Seventh chords contain 7 in the chord’s name. They are built from four notes, not just three as the minor/major (Triads).
The three most common seventh chords are:
- Dominant 7th – Usually written with an upper case letter with the number 7 to its right.
examples: G7, B7, C7 (for instructional purposes I use just X7).
- Major seventh—This is usually written with an uppercase letter with maj7 (a shortcut for Major seven) to its right. You can sometimes see it in songs as Δ7 chord.
- For example, Gmaj7 = GΔ7 (it’s the same chord)
- Minor seventh—This is usually written with an uppercase letter, with the shortcut mi7 or just m7 (which stands for minor).
Example: Gm7 = Gmi7
OK, I promised some exercises for you to download. These will help you gain control over some seventh guitar chords. I also included exercises that replace the original chords with a new seventh chord so you can use it in your chord playing immediately and benefit more from this lesson.
Otherwise, it would be just another guitar chords lesson.
See, my goal is that you jump your level of playing from beginner to intermediate faster,
That’s why I’m pushing every one of my lessons a little further, To give you extra out of each lesson.
So, download this free lesson’s chord exercises and continue with your progress.
Next lessons:
Guitar Bar Chords (barre) made easy – Beginner guitar chords lesson
Power chords for rock and heavy metal guitar 101- Advanced guitar chords lesson
Next Step > Guitar bar chords.
