How to Construct Seventh Chords

A seventh chord is a four-note chord created by adding a note a third above any of the four types of triads. There are three main ways to think of building seventh chords:

1. Adding a note a third above a major, minor, augmented or diminished triad.
2. Stacking intervals above a root.
3. Constructing seventh chords from the major scale.

Each of these approaches will be examined separately. It is worthwhile to understand each of them. Luckily, each approach is closely related to the others, so it shouldn't be too hard to learn all of them.

Building Seventh Chords by Adding a Note to a Triad

Seventh chords can be thought of in terms of the quality of the triad, which will be major, minor, augmented or diminished, and the interval between the root of the chord and the seventh. This interval can be a major seventh, minor seventh, or diminished seventh. A seventh chord can be built by creating a combination of each chord type with each interval. In practice, there are eight kinds of seventh chords that are encountered frequently, although combining each type of triad with each seventh interval allows for more possibilities. Many of these possibilities are enharmonic to other chords or are used infrequently, so they aren't covered here.

The chart below shows how to combine triads with various kinds of sevenths to create each seventh chord.

Chord	Type of Triad	Type of Seventh
major seventh	major	major
dominant seventh	major	minor
minor seventh	minor	minor
diminished seventh or fully-diminished seventh	diminished	diminished
half-diminished chord or minor seven flat five	diminished	minor
minor major seventh	minor	major
augmented major seventh	augmented	major
augmented seventh	augmented	minor

Alternate Names for Seventh Chords

Seventh chords are sometimes referred to in terms of the triad and seventh rather than the names given previously. The name will have two parts. The first part is the type of triad. The second part of the name is the type of seventh. For example, a major seventh could also be called a major major seventh, because the triad is major and the seventh is a major seventh. Some of the names will be the same as the names you learned above. The alternate names are shown below for each type of seventh chord:

Common Name	Alternate Name
major seventh	major major seventh
dominant seventh	major minor seventh
minor seventh	minor minor seventh
diminished seventh	diminished diminished seventh
half-diminished seventh	diminished minor seventh
minor major seventh	minor major seventh
augmented major seventh	augmented major seventh
augmented seventh	augmented minor seventh

Building Seventh Chords with Intervals

Like triads, seventh chords can be constructed by stacking intervals in a specific pattern above a root note. The chart below lists the type of chord and the specific intervals for the third, fifth, and seventh of the chord.

Chord	Third	Fifth	Seventh
major seventh	major	perfect	major
dominant seventh	major	perfect	minor
minor seventh	minor	perfect	minor
diminished seventh	minor	diminished	diminished
half-diminished seventh	minor	diminished	minor
minor major seventh	minor	perfect	major
augmented major seventh	major	augmented	major
augmented seventh	major	augmented	minor

Building Seventh Chords with Major Scales

Seventh chords can be created by starting with the triads created on each degree of the major scale. This is done by stacking another note above the top note in the triad. The extra note should be a third above the highest note in the triad. For example, if you want to create a seventh chord on the tonic in C major, you would start with a C major triad and add a note a third above the top note in the chord. The top note in a C major triad is G, so a third above that would be a B. Keep in mind that the note that you add to each triad should be diatonic to that major scale.

There is a specific pattern of seventh chords that occur on each scale degree. For example, the seventh chord built on the fifth degree of the scale is always a dominant seventh chord. The table below lists the type of chord and Roman numeral for the seventh chord on each degree of the major scale.

Degree	Roman Numeral	Type of Chord
1	I7	major seventh
2	ii7	minor seventh
3	iii7	minor seventh
4	IV7	major seventh
5	V7	dominant seventh
6	vi7	minor seventh
7	vii^Ø7	half-diminished seventh

The example below shows the seventh chords in the C major scale:

Seventh chords created from the C major scale labeled with Roman numerals

Only four types of seventh chords occur naturally in the major scale: major, minor, dominant, and half-diminished. The other kinds of seventh chords are created from other scales and, with the exception of the fully-diminished seventh chord, are used less frequently.

Chord Symbols for Seventh Chords

The symbols used for each kind of seventh chord is shown in the chart below. Unfortunately, there is no standardization for these symbols, so you may see a different symbol for the same chord depending on where you look. The preferred symbol is listed along with common alternate symbols. The preferred symbol is the one that is most common, the most correct, and/or the clearest in indicating the type of chord. These are the symbols that will be used on this site. This chart shouldn't be considered an exhaustive list of symbols for each chord, as there are probably many other variations.

Chord	Preferred Symbol	Alternate Symbols	Examples	Pronunciation
major seventh	maj7	M7 Δ7, ma7	Cmaj7, CM7, CΔ7, Cma7	major seven or major seventh
dominant seventh	7	n/a	C7	seventh or dominant seventh
minor seventh	m7	-7, min7, mi7	Cm7, C-7, Cmin7, Cmi7	minor seven or minor seventh
fully-diminished seventh	°7	dim	C°7, Cdim	diminished seventh or fully diminished seventh
half-diminished seventh	m7b5	^Ø7	Cm7b5, C^Ø7	half-diminished seventh (used more in classical music) or minor seven flat five (more common with jazz musicians)
minor major seventh	m(maj7)	mM7, mΔ7, -Δ7	Cm(maj7), CmM7, CmΔ7, C-Δ7	minor major seventh
augmented major seventh	maj7#5	n/a	Cmaj7#5	augmented major seventh or major seventh sharp five
augmented seventh	aug7	n/a	Caug7	augmented seventh

Here is an example of how these symbols could be used to label the seventh chords in C major:

Seventh chords created from the C major scale