So far we have been dealing with 3 note chords. Three note chords are usually referred to as triads. These are the most basic chords. However, the first note of each chord in any inversion, can be duplicated an octave higher, thus giving us 4 note chords. Four note chords in each inversion gives us a new melodic word. Listen below to hear the three 4-note chords for the C, F and G chords.

C Chord __ C Chord 2nd Inv. __ C Chord 3rd Inv.

Click below to see the 3 inversions of a F chord

F Chord __ F Chord 2nd Inv. __ F Chord 3rd Inv.

Click below to see the 3 inversions of a G chord

G Chord __ G Chord 2nd Inv. __ G Chord 3rd Inv.

Below are a couple of short melodies based on 4 note chords.

Example 1 ____________ Example 2

The 4-note chords that you've seen so far were created by duplicating one of the notes an octave higher. However, there is another kind of 4-note chord. This chord is called the Seventh Chord. Seventh chords are created by adding yet another note to the chord by skipping a note, just like we did earlier with the 1-3-5 chord. Basically, we skip another note, add the next note and we create the seventh chord. Now are notes are 1-3-5-7, the seventh chord. Click below to see and hear the seventh chord based on the C, F and G chords.

C Major Seventh _________ F Major Seventh _________ G Dominant Seventh

Click below to see the 4 inversions of the a C major seventh chord.

C Major Seventh __ C Major Seventh 2nd Inv. __ C Major Seventh 3rd Inv. ___ C Major Seventh 4th Inv.

Click below to see the 4 inversions of a F major seventh chord

F Major Seventh __ F Major Seventh 2nd Inv. __ F Major Seventh 3rd Inv. ___ F Major Seventh 4th Inv.

Click below to see the 4 inversions of a G dominant seventh chord

G Dominant Seventh __ G Dominant Seventh 2nd Inv.

G Dominant Seventh 3rd Inv. ___ G Dominant Seventh 4th Inv.

Seventh chords are another great source in creating great melodies. For the time being we are just going to touch on them, so as to introduce you to the interval of the seventh in the next section. As you look through the topics, you'll see I have a whole section devoted to seventh chords. But you'll understand seventh chords better after I've explained intervals in the next section.

Putting it all Together

This next melody consists of the following melodic words:

C Major Seventh ____ C Major Seventh 2nd Inv____ F Root PositionVariation 6 ___ G Dominant Seventh 4th Inv.

C 1st inversion Variation 1

I am using some of our previous melodic words to start creating more interesting melodies. For the C major Seventh, we're using the going up words. With the G Dominant Seventh, we're using the up and down version. Seventh chords have 24 variations each, and what I've shown you here is 8 of them, one up, one down, for each. But I'll show you the rest of them in the seventh chords section.

Melody Example

Another thing to notice is the second melodic word, the c major seventh 2nd inv chord, is not a nearest note to the note before. That is because when you're in the same chord, you can jump to another chord tone, especially if it's part of c major chord sequence of notes, like in this example.