Going beyond the root note (part 2)

In Part 2 of ‘Going Beyond The Root’, we are going to look at four note arpeggios, or known as 7th note chords. Learning these shapes will give you more ideas for bass lines and fills, and extend your musical vocabulary and tool box.

As players we come across 7th chords such as; Cmaj7, Cmin7, C7, Cdim7, Caug7 all the time. Usually we play the root note, but now from our previous lesson we can now play the 3rd, and 5th as well (if you have been practising that is!). As it’s name implies, a 7th chord is a chord with the seventh degree of the scale included in it. There are different types of 7th chords, but in this lesson we will look at the three common 7th chords which we encounter regularly as musicians. These are; major 7,minor 7 and dominant 7.
There are three basic sounds in music: major, minor and dominant. The 7th. refers to the seventh note of the major scale. When this note is added to a major or a minor chord, it becomes a 7th. chord. One becomes the major 7th. the other, the minor 7th
(though, if minor, we usually flat the 7th (b7)).
In our previous lesson, we’ve constructed major and minor chords using; 1 (root), 3rd and 5th from the major scale and now we are looking at the possibility of adding the 7th. When we add the seventh, we can create all three basic musical sounds rather than just major and minor. Major is a very ‘Happy’ sounding chord where as Minor has a ‘sad’ or ‘moody’ feel. Finally the Dominant chord has a blues sound.
So below are the fingerings for the three common 7th chords, and note examples are given below also. (note – 7th chords have a b7 (flattened 7) unless stated with a major)

Gmaj7 – G (root), B (3rd), D (5th), F# (7th)	Gmin7 – G (root), Bb (3rd), D (5th), F (7th)	G7 - G (root), B (3rd), D (5th), F (7th)
Major 7th	Minor 7th (b7)	Dominant 7th (maj 3rd, b7)

These shapes/patterns will help you develop your creative development as a bass player. Happy learning! ~ Justin