Minor seventh chords : structures
Minor seventh chord is on the :
- II, III, and VI degree of the Major scale
- I, IV and V degree of the natural minor sc.
- II degree of the melodic minor scale
- IV degree of the harmonic minor key
- I degree of a minor scale (It has major seventh on harmonic minor scale!)
Tips:
– Learn all minor seventh chords in all keys and in its 4 inversions
– Play these chords in the whole keyboard (More than an octave)
– Arpeggiate the inversions
Minor seventh chord has a beautiful sound and I have sincerely to say that among the five families of chords, this is my preferred. It has a sweet, soft but also darken, mysterious and expressive sound. There are famous songs (see for example, ‘So what” by Miles Davis) based only on this chord.
Minor seventh chord inversions chart and tutorial videos
Watch this free piano video to better understand how to study minor chords
In this other video I play minor seventh chords’ arpeggios
Here is the minor seventh chord chart. In this chart I wrote minor seventh chord as a II degree in major key
In some video, that I am publishing, I improvise for some minutes only on a minor seventh chord. Generally, it is used in various harmonic contexts: often it represents a II degree in Major key but also a VI degree in the major key. In many tunes, you can find it on minor key’s IV degree.
How to learn seventh chord inversions
A great drill to learn minor seventh chords is to play all the chords on your instrument and then improvise on a minor chord using only chordal notes. For example you can improvise on Cmin7 using only C-Eb-G-Bb. In this way you learn to control and play rights notes in your improvisations. Improvising does not mean playing whatever note I want in a random way and it does not mean playing patterns of notes I learnt before in my practice. Improvisation means composing good and nice music, good melodies never played before.
