Seventh chords

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There are 10 types of seventh chord in all, but unless you're teaching at a fairly advanced level you will mainly be concerned with these three chord types:

Dominant 7th
Major 7th
Minor 7th

Their formulas are as follows:

Dominant 7th = 1,3,5,b7
Major 7th = 1,3,5,7
Minor 7th = 1,b3,5,b7

Confusion arises when jazz musicians meet rock musicians.

To a jazz musician a 7th chord generally means Major 7th chord because the major 7th type is more commonly used in jazz than the dominant 7th.

The jazz musician will usually refer to the dominant 7th by its full name (that's if they haven't already substituted a dominant 13th chord for it!)

To a rock/blues/pop/country or folk guitarist a 7th chord usually means dominant 7th because major 7ths are used less frequently in these genres. When major 7th chords do crop up they tend to give them the full title of 'Major Seventh'.

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