Modifying 7th Chord Structures

How to change maj7 chord into another chord type

As we learn various construction procedures for building four-part chords on the guitar, we shouldn't neglect doing the work of translating those chords from "major7" to other, similar chord structures.

This lesson will deal with typical "seventh" chords. In another lesson, we'll talk about tension substitution and finally we'll talk about the more complex chord substitution.

Here we'll explore the C^maj7 chord in Drop-3 form, and change it into any of the other 9 basic 7^th chord types.

* Note: ♯11 chords will be treated as ♭5 chords. This is because in most cases the natural five will be omitted from either chord. However, saying "♭5" is the most clear way to indicate this, as a ♭5 indicates no natural 5, whereas a ♯4 does not necessarily.

Major Sevenths

Major 7 Drop 3

A C-major chord in drop3 form.

This chord is structured as: Root, 7^th, 3^rd, 5^th. Therefore, we can apply any of the chord formulas above to alter the quality of the chord.

Major 7 ♯11 Drop 3

Major 7 ♯5 Drop 3

Dominant Sevenths

Dominant 7 Drop 3

Dominant 7 ♯5 Drop 3

Dominant 7 ♯11 Drop 3

Minor Sevenths

Minor 7 Drop 3

Minor 7 ♭5 Drop 3

Diminished 7 Drop 3

Minor 7 ♯5 Drop 3

Of course, the work isn't done yet. Each of these structures can be played in any inversion, and they can also be played from the fifth string. In addition, you can also use another structure such as Drop 2 and get similar results.

Key Tasks

• Memorize the chord forms.
• Convert each chord to inversions 1, 2 and 3.
• Convert each chord to its 5^th string drop-3 equivalent.
• Convert the chords on the 5^th string to inversions 1, 2 and 3.