You may already have noticed that some chords have unusual names e.g. 7th, 9th, #11 etc. Their names are often derived from the fact that notes are ‘added’ to the original chord to make it sound different. Adding notes to chords gives the songwriter an opportunity to help establish a style of music or to change the colour and feel of a song at a given point.

Here, we will explore the use of various 7th chords and find out how they can be played, how they sound in comparison with one another and in which styles of music they can often be found.

Firstly let’s take the chord of C major (C) and look at two types of 7th that can be added to the chord.

The major 7th chord is often used in pop, rock ballads and jazz, the 7th (often termed ‘dominant 7th') can be found a lot in blues.