Pianopattern.com 6th Edition Ch 3 Major 7ths

8/6/2019 Pianopattern.com 6th Edition Ch 3 Major 7ths

1/13

Chapter

3

M A J O R 7 T H C H O R D S A N D H O W T O F I N D T H E M

Chapter 3: Major 7th Chords and

How to Find Them

OK, Now lets get into using the system!

Demonst ration: Finding CM7 and Cm7 from the

Start ing Position for all C Chords

Starting Position for C Chords

RR 4

From the Starting Position (R, R and 4th ), you will move the top two notes down ahalf-step each to find a Major 7th Chord.

C Major 7 th

7R 3

Down a hal f -s tep f rom

Start ing Posit ion


2/13


From the Starting Position (R, R and 4th ), you will move the top two notes down awhole-step each to find a Minor 7th Chord.

C Minor 7 th

7 3

R

Note: a whole step is the same as two half-steps.

Down a who l e -s tep f ro m

Start ing Posit ion

NOTE: People sometimes are confused that you move the top two notes a half-step for a Major 7thand a whole step for a Minor 7th.They wonder, why do you move more for minor than major?

The starting position is higher in pitch, and therefore more to the right on thekeyboard thananyof the final chords. Thats why you move further to the leftor a Minor 7th chord than a Major 7th chord, because the Root and 4th (in thestarting position) are the highest position in the chord, you will be moving down(to the left) to find the 7thand and 3rdof each chord.

-----------------------------When you talk about high and low on the keyboard, high is more to theright, low is more to the left.


3/13


Nates Three Finger Piano Method: Finding the

Start ing Position

Step 1

Find the Root of the Chord in Octaves. If its a C Major 7th Chord, you would findtwo Cs:

RR

Play the left Root in the left hand and the right Root in the right hand.

If the chord were F# Minor 7th Chord, you would find two F#s:

R R


4/13


Step 2

Now find the root in your right hand and f ind the note a 4t h above (to the right). Ifyoure finding a C Major 7th Chord, the 4th above the Root (C) would be F.

RR 4

If youre finding a F# Minor 7th Chord, the 4th above Root (F#) would be B.

R

4

R


5/13


Finding the Quality from the Start ing Position

What you have so far is what well call the start ing posit ion. The starting position is

the Root of the chord in octaves with the fourth above the higher root (the one in yourright hand). The Third step is to move the top two notes to left. You will do it one ofsix different ways. The first way is when you want to find a Major 7th Chord.

Step 3 for Major Seventh Chords , Move the top two notes (the higher Root and 4th)down a half-step (one key to the left). For C Major 7th (CM7):

Starting Position for C Chords

C Major 7 th

RR 4

37R

For F Major 7th (FM7):

Starting Position for F Chords

F Major 7 th

4

RR

7R 3


6/13


OK, while you dont have to read music to understand this book, it will help if youhave a sense of it.

Here are steps one through 3 for both CM7 and FM7. If you read music, this will be a

review of the last few pages. If you dont read music, use this opportunity to try tostart understanding music some.

Here is the same thing, but with the notes written out for those of you who dont readmusic well yet.

The bottomnote (theRoot) will beplayed in the

left hand, and are written here inthe bottom staff. Most of thetime, I wont write out the bassfor you, since the bass note isgiven in the chord name.

Top two notesare written onthe top staff,and are playedin the righthand


7/13


Practicing moving from CM7 to FM7

These two chords are quite common, and I want you to familiarize yourself with themright away, because I will be using various C and F chords to demonstrate much of thetheory in this book. Yes, there are many other chords, but it will be easier tounderstand the concepts if we just concentrate on these two roots for now.

In the first measure above, youll see the two chords you learned on the previous pagewritten out in notation. The numbers underneath indicate what chord degree thenotes represent. In other words, in the first chord, CM7, the 3 represents that the topnote of that chord is the 3rd. The 7 represents that the middle note of that chord is the7th.

Where is the bottom note? Well, to save space in the book, Ive written only thetreble clef. The bottom note will always be written in the chord name. So for the firstchord, the bottom note (played in the left hand) is C! For the next chord, its F! Thatseasy isnt it. This is also good practice, because fake books dont give you the basseither!

Common tone

Here, Ive given you the same selection, but with the note names written underneath(very handy if you dont read music). Notice that in the second measure the 3rd o f theCM7 chord (E) becomes the 7th o f the FM7 (E, as well, of course). This is aphenomenon that will become very clear to you as we go through the book. Thatsbecause these two chords are related by the circle of fifths. I know, it sounds


8/13

N A T E S T H R E E F I N G E R P I A N O M E T H O D

mysterious and powerful doesnt it? Like Stonehenge or the Knights of the RoundTable. But the circle of fifths is quite easy. All it means is that theroots of the twochords are related by a 4th.

C to F is a 4th

Chords that are related by t he circle of f i f thsare used all the time in every style ofmusic from Bach to Rap. Because they are used so often, it is good to learn patterns ofchords moving around the circle of fifths with smooth voice leading.Smooth Voice leading means that the notes in one chord move to the notes in thenext chord in the smoothest way possible. As you can see below, in the secondmeasure, the B moves down a whole-step to the A, which is much smoother than whathappens in the first measure, where the B jumps up almost a whole octave to the A.

Poor voice Leading Smooth voice Leading

Top note stays thesame, bottom notemoves down awhole step: muchsmoother!

Both notes jump a4th: not smooth

Voices are the notes in a chord. If the top note of each chord above is a voice, inwould stay on the same note in the second measure (which is quite smooth) and itwould jump up a 4th in the first measure (not very smooth). The middle voice dropsdown a whole step in the second measure (a smaller, smoother interval), and it jumpsup a 4th (the same as the top note) in the first measure (not very smooth).

As you can see, playing chords with smooth voice leading is a very desirable skill tolearn, and we will discuss it in the second half of this book but first, youll have tolearn how to find the notes in chords before you learn how to move smoothly between


9/13


them. In this book, we will learn two ways to play chords in the first one, well putthe 3rd on top and the 7th in the middle.

As soon as you start to grow confident playing them in this first voicing, we will learn

the second voicing, in which the order of the notes are reversed: the 7th

will be on topand the 3rd in the middle. This is the voicing of FM7 you see in the second measure upabove. By switching the order of the 7th and 3rd of the secondchord when you switchbetween two chords related by the circle of fifths you will create very smooth,pleasing chord changes.

Since these patterns are used so often, it is usually preferable to memorize thesechanges or groups of two chords, and how to move between them smoothly, ratherthan learning the chords individually. So, for those who canstart memorizing thesepatterns right away before learning all the chords, I would recommend it. When you

read, If you can look at two chords and know what to do instead of one, it will allowyou to readfasteras well as smoother.

Moving from CM7 to FM7 with Smooth Voice Leading

C Major 7 th

7R 3

F Major 7 th

7R 3


10/13


11/13


Pract ice Finding Major 7th Chords

Use Nates Three Finger Piano Method.


12/13



13/13


Note: every 2nd chord is aoicing 2 chord, written asv2 in parentheses. To findhe second chord in eachmeasure, just

) take the middle note of thestchord in each measure downwhole step (for example, B to

A in the first measure) and

) change the Root of the 1sthord to the Root of the secondfor example, C to F in thefirst measure). (Remember, Iavent written the Root of

ach chord out in notation,ecause its in the name of thehord!

Moving from Major 7th Chord to Major 7th Chord

SAME NOTE

DOWN WHOLESTEP

Documents

Pianopattern.com 6th Edition Ch 3 Major 7ths