Chord Focus for March: Dominant Sevenths

The Level 4 Foundations course at PWJ focuses on sevenths: major, dominant, minor, diminished, and half-diminished.

For most of my piano-playing life, if you had asked me to define one of those, or at least play one, I could have done it. I might have had to think about it for a moment, particularly in a key like Gb or B, or I might have had to think hard about which is diminished and which is half-diminished, but I would have been OK.

But did I really understand what made these different types of sevenths unique? More importantly, did I understand their unique sounds and effects? Could I discern the difference between a C minor seventh, a C diminished seventh, and a C half-diminished seventh, just by listening?

Maybe? If someone had put me to the test, I probably would've made a few correct semi-educated guesses. But they would mostly have been guesses.

So when I joined PWJ back in February, I decided to start at the early intermediate level because I knew my understanding of seventh chords was shaky and full of holes. I spent the month of February focusing on major sevenths, and now that it's March, I'm deep in a study of dominant sevenths.

Included in the course are a bunch of great exercises to make dominant sevenths feel ever more natural under my hands. I've been focusing on the circle-of-fifths block and broken chords, and I've started working on inversions as well.

Dominant-seventh study has been much easier than major-seventh study. Dominant sevenths are so much more common in both classical and pop music, so it's the most familiar type of seventh to me. Still, I'm finding the exercises both challenging and helpful.

Here is the exercise for block chords going counter-clockwise around the circle of fifths. Not the most exciting video, but it will be good to go back and look at this a year from now to see how I've improved.

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