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6.2.7
Seventh Chords: One of Only Two Main Chord Types

So far, this chapter has discussed two flavours of one type of chord—the triad:

  1. Balanced, consonant triads: major and minor chords
  2. Unbalanced, dissonant triads: diminished and augmented chords

There’s only one other main type of chord: the seventh. To get a seventh chord, you simply pile three “third” intervals atop each other.

Now you’ve got a four-note chord. Unlike basic three-note major and minor triads, all seventh chords are dissonant.

Here’s why:

First, as an example, have another look at the intervals of the C major scale (Figure 42).

Seventh intervals of the C major musical scale.

FIGURE 42: Intervals—C Major Scale

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