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Seventh chords on piano/keyboard

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  • 09-01-2010 4:41pm
    #1
    raindog.promo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,514 ✭✭✭


    How does one go about playing them in general/usually?

    Play all four notes I/III/V/VII or leave out a III or V?

    Just wondering what the norm is, if any.


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    #2
    kfoltman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 252 ✭✭kfoltman


    raindog.promo wrote: »
    How does one go about playing them in general/usually?

    Play all four notes I/III/V/VII or leave out a III or V?

    Just wondering what the norm is, if any.
    Depends on many factors.

    If it's jazz, and you're playing with a bassist, you may play 3rd and 7h and add 9th (2nd), 11th (4th) and/or 13th (6th) depending on a particular flavour you want. The 5th is usually skipped. Root (I) is usually skipped when someone else (i.e. a bassist) is playing it.

    In rock you usually play all four notes. But any strict rules are counterproductive.

    You usually want to keep the 3rd, as it tells a major chord from a minor one. You usually want to keep the 7th in when playing a dominant 7th chord (C7), otherwise the chord loses its character. But you might skip a 7th in a major 7th chord (play a C instead of Cmaj7) or replace it with major 6th (and play a C6).

    You can try "reordering" notes in a chord - like instead of playing C E G B you may play C G (left hand) E B (right hand), or C B (left hand) E G C (right hand). As far as I know, this type of chord voicing is called "open". You need to experiment a bit and get accustomed to how different voicings sound like - especially with different notes in different octaves - for example, if you play the major 7th note very low, it will sound "muddy" and unpleasant, but the same thing done with a 5th note should be fine even if the note itself is lower than the 7th.


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    #3
    raindog.promo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,514 ✭✭✭raindog.promo


    Thanks


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    #4
    banquo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,487 ✭✭✭banquo


    In anything but jazz, you definitely want to keep the third and the seventh (the interval between these two is what creates the tension that's resolved by the chord that follows it).

    Having the tonic/root/'I' in there usually helps.

    PS: roman numerals refer to chords, maybe use arabic numbers (1,2,3) instead :)


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