SkillShare All About 7th Chords By Josh Cook [TUTORiAL]

Seventh chords are the heart of modern harmony—they add richness, depth, and emotion to your music. From jazz and R&B to funk, soul, pop, film scoring, and even classical traditions, 7th chords provide the color and movement that make progressions sound more sophisticated and expressive. If you've ever wondered how musicians create those lush, soulful, or tension-filled sounds, the answer is often in the use of 7th chords. In this course, we'll break down all of the essential 7th chords, show you how they are built, and explain the unique role each one plays in music. You'll learn how major 7ths bring brightness and a dreamy quality, how minor 7ths create smooth, velvety textures, how the dominant 7th delivers the unmistakable sound of the blues, and how half-diminished and diminished chords add cinematic drama and tension. We'll also explore the less common but fascinating minor-major 7th chord , famous for its haunting and dramatic character. To make your learning even easier, this course also comes with downloadable PDF materials that guide you step by step through the concepts and examples. These resources will help you review chord formulas, practice progressions, and have a quick reference while you're at the piano or writing music. Beyond just learning the chords themselves, we'll look at how to apply them in real progressions. A highlight of the course is the ii–V–I progression , the foundation of jazz harmony and a powerful tool for creating movement and resolution. By the end of this course, you won't just know the theory—you'll have practical experience using 7th chords to bring your own progressions to life, opening the door to richer and more creative music-making.