Dominant Seventh Chord

In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a chord composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. It can be also viewed as a major triad with an additional minor seventh. It is denoted using popular music symbols by adding a superscript "7" after the letter designating the chord root. The dominant seventh is found almost as often as the dominant triad. In Roman numerals it is represented as V7. The chord can be represented by the integer notation {0, 4, 7, 10}.

dominant seventh chord
Component intervals from root
minor seventh
perfect fifth
major third
root
Forte number or Tuning
20:25:30:36

Of all the seventh chords, perhaps the most important is the dominant seventh. It was the first seventh chord to appear regularly in classical music. The name comes from the fact that it occurs naturally in the seventh chord built upon the dominant (i.e. the fifth degree) of a given major diatonic scale. Take for example the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C):

The note G is the dominant degree of C major - its fifth note. When we arrange the notes of the C major scale in ascending pitch and use only these notes to build a seventh chord, and we start with G (not C), then the resulting chord contains the four notes G-B-D-F and is called G dominant seventh (G7). The note F is a minor seventh from G, and it is also called the dominant seventh with respect to G. However, the 'dominant' seventh is used on notes other than the dominant, such as the subdominant.

Read more about Dominant Seventh Chord:  Function, History, Voice Leading, Dominant Seventh Chord Table

Famous quotes containing the words dominant, seventh and/or chord:

    In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God’s existence, God’s justice, God’s love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.
    Erich Fromm (1900–1980)

    Hearing the low sound
    of a cloud scattering rain
    at midnight
    and thinking for an eternity
    on his absent young wife,
    a traveller heaved a sigh
    and with a flood of tears
    howled the whole night long.
    Now, villagers won’t let him stay
    in their place anymore.
    Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)

    Love took up the glass of Time, and turned it in his glowing hands;
    Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.
    Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with
    might;
    Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight.
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)