Amaj7 vs. A7??

[groove.77]

Is there any difference between these two chords?

[Phil Brigham]

Yes...

A7 is made up of A, C#, E, and G (1, 3, 5, b7), and is often used as the V chord in D, or in blues or funk in various keys.

 

Amaj7 is made up of A, C#, E, and G# (1, 3, 5, 7) and that one note difference makes a world of difference - Major 7th chords are very pretty, and more likely to turn up in a pop ballad than in a blues.

[Phil Brigham]

There are several ways to play these chords...I'll show one of each in TAB...

 

A7

 

------0------ E

------2-------C#

------0-------G

------2-------E

------0-------A

------X-------

 

Amaj7

 

-------0--------E

-------2--------C#

-------1--------G#

-------2--------E

-------0--------A

-------X--------

[Viktor Johanson]

What he said. Maj7 chords are often used as I and IV chords in a major progression while 7 (dominant seventh) chords are used as the V chord.

 

An example, the seventh chords of the C Major scale:

 

CMaj7 Dm7 Em7 FMaj7 G7 Am7 Bm7b5

. . I . . II . . III . . IV . .V. .VI . VII . .

[Terje]

And BTW, Ove only plays Maj7 chords, never dominant 7 chord. He's such a sweet guy...

[Viktor Johanson]

Everybody knows you can

[Viktor Johanson]

Throwing dice now, rolling loaded,

I see sevens all the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

post count

[WattsUrizen]

Prior to twentieth-century music, there wasn't a huge difference between these two chords. Seventh chords arised as a contraction of passing melodic motion from the dominant to tonic: For example, in C major, the dominant G major resolves to the tonic C major, the top voice of the G major chord moves from G to E, with a passing tone F in between. Composers began to contract this melodic motion by using the F in the dominant chord, thus forming the seventh chord. Now whether the added tone formed an interval of a minor seventh or a major seventh with the bass, it was still a dissonance, and thus resolved downwards by step. So the resolution of major seventh chords was analogous to that of dominant seventh chords.

 

In tonal music of the twentieth century, dominant seventh chords still predominantly resolved regularly: The diminished 5th between the third and seventh of the chord resolved inwards to a major third. However in major seventh chords, no diminished 5th is present. Thus in the major seventh chord we have only one dissonant interval - a major 7th - as opposed to two in the dominant seventh chord (a diminished 5th and minor 7th). In the dominant seventh the prescence of the diminished 5th highlights the dissonant minor 7th intensifying the downward resolution of the seventh. However there is no diminished 5th in the major seventh, so this tendency is reduced, and in the twentieth century we began to see the dissonant major seventh resolve irregularly upwards.

 

There are a couple of notable reasons for this: Firstly, the major seventh is only a half step from an octave - a very stable interval. Upwards resolution enables movement from a significantly unstable interval to a very stable one. Of course, this is assuming that the bass remains the same, and this leads to the second reason. In a seventh chord, the seventh resolves to a tone not in the present chord. In a ninth chord, the ninth resolves to a tone in the present chord (the octave). So in the major seventh, the upwards resolution is somewhat analogous to that of the ninth chord, the tone of resolution is in the present chord.

 

In terms of function, this means that the major seventh has significantly less intensity than the dominant seventh. In the dominant seventh, motion is directed to a new chord. In the major seventh with irregular upwards resolution, there is no motion to a new chord, but motion within the present chord. The effect of this is that in the major seventh, provided the seventh is in the top voice, the seventh is not heard as being as definitive a chord tone as the other tones, but as a product of dissonant melodic motion - which, surprisingly enough, is the origin of the seventh chord in the first place.