Guitar lessons: You’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d use the minor scale to construct minor 7th chords, but that’s not quite how it works. All scales and chords are compared to the major scale, ...

When it comes to guitar chords, it all begins with basic ones that are called either major (use just the letter of the chord, eg E for E major) or minor (reduced to the letter plus m, eg Em for E ...

Here are five 7th chords, the theory underpinning them, and some ideas for modifying them. They are so commonplace that we take the theory behind them for granted.

Just three chords this time because open Gm7 and Cm7 shapes are rarely used, leaving just Dm7, Em7 and Am7. Practise by strumming each chord, then picking each string to check they are all ringing ...

Minor: A Minor chord is also a triad, containing a root, Minor third and a perfect fifth. The notation for Minor chords is to have the root note followed by m or min. For example, Emin, F#m and Bbm ...

Seventh chords are not interchangeable with major and minor chords. They have a particular musical function and occur at different places in a phrase, just as adjectives have a different function ...

7th chords are great for spicing up progressions where simple major and minor chords may not have quite enough personality. In this example a basic I–IV–V progression is boosted with major 7th ...