Hello, and welcome to the Los Doggies blog! This is the very first post, so I’m writing about my favorite chord — the Major Seventh. Check it out on this crappy out-of-tune guitar.
It’s called the Chord of Love. To understand why, let’s take a look at the 4 beautiful notes that form a Major Seventh.
The Major Chord alone is a happy fellow – triumphant, righteous, but add the Major Seventh on top, and what have you got? A sad, sad little heartbroken chord.
The Seventh is eternally seeking resolution to the Root. By suspending the Seventh on top of the Root, nothing will ever be resolved. In this way, you can fuck with your listener’s desires!
Los Doggies uses buttloads of major seventh chords. So do the Beatles.
These two measures show off the Major Seventh as a means of simple harmonic progression, but check out this earlier Beatles example…
Just like in “Something”, the Seventh is accentuated in the melody, but here, the Major Seventh acts as a resolution, albeit a dreamy resolve to the subdominant (IV Degree). Everything in this chorus is a perfect fit – the lyrics, harmony, and movement are all of one sleepy psychedelic mind.
Sean Lennon is also a Major Seventh enthusiast. Listen to the song “Bathtub”. Right before the second chorus, there is an acoustic guitar breakdown bridge section that goes – C#maj7 Amaj7 Dmaj7 Bmin7. It don’t get lovelier than that.
The band Hum also uses Major Sevenths in totally original ways.
Check out the song “If You Are to Bloom”. The little segue riff (when everything kicks in), modulates through weird Major Sevenths – Dmaj7(add 9) Bmaj7(add 9) F#maj7(add 9) and on to the Emaj7. This type of harmony, (along with the thousand tracks of guitars) gave Hum their unique outerspacious sound.
Finally, here’s a beautiful song by America, chock full of Major Sevenths sung and strummed.
Tinman
