the minor major 7th chord

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
I've always had a mild interest in the basics of jazz guitar because I like the sound of the some of the chords they use (like the major 7th sound). I was recently surfing Amazon, and saw the book below pop up on my suggested list, used, for $5 shipped. Saw that it's apparently a really high level of some basics. Kind of a here are some ideas to play with to add some jazz-sounding ideas to your playing. So I ordered it. Came in the other day, so I sat down to start reading it this afternoon.

Got through the first chapter that was basically talking about influential players and a recommended listening list (Django, Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, etc) and then got to the next chapter where they introduced the "basic" jazz chords. "Here's C7, Cmaj7, Cm7, and Cm(maj 7)." Wait...what?!? A minor major 7 chord? It's apparently a minor chord with a major 7 sound thrown in to create a dissonant sounding chord. It's actually a pretty recognizable sound that I've heard in old movies a LOT.

A minor major 7 chord. Definitely not a sound we'd hear in blues at any point in time ever, but the fact that I now know it exists means that I think my mind has officially been blown today. :D

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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
You might want to check out Lesson 17 in "Guitar Theory Made Useful (And Easy)".

In particular the chart on pp 79 showing a "Common Use" of the Melodic Minor. :)

For extra, added "Theory Fun Time", you might try building 7 chords on each degree of both the Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales and see what you come up with.

At least on the tonic of each. :sneaky:

(And the chords in Griff's Chord chart for the Minor Family in Lesson 7 on pp 32-33. :))
 
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ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
I think the mMaj7 is a pretty common chord in funk as well as jazz. The progression im-imMaj7-im7-IV is used a lot to get that descending line through the middle voice of the chords, rather than in the bass where we hear it most of the time. Listen to "This Masquerade" or "Nature Boy" as classic examples.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
While practicing my "homework" for tomorrow's AAP session I realized for a min/Major7 arpeggio we'd stack these 3rds:

m3 - M3 - M3.

A Major 3rd on top of a minor triad.

Or an augmented triad on top of a minor 3rd. o_O
 

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
While practicing my "homework" for tomorrow's AAP session I realized for a min/Major7 arpeggio we'd stack these 3rds:

m3 - M3 - M3.

A Major 3rd on top of a minor triad.

Or an augmented triad on top of a minor 3rd. o_O
And if you look one step further, the Major7 to the minor 3 above it is another M3. So if you take an AmM7, it's a C+(i.e. C Augmented) on top of an A bass. A is the 6th of C, so call it a C+6.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
AmM7

Yes, it can be expressed as C aug on top of an A bass, Caug/A, or C+6 or even other inversions.

Since Griff is focusing on building arpeggios by stacking 3rds, I expressed mM7 the way I did, i.e. m3-M3-M3 or augmented triad (M3-M3) on top of m3.

Others have already pointed out other ways to look at building and naming chords, but, again, Griff is currently stressing seeing 3rds stacked up on the guitar in our current AAP sessions.

(When we start inverting chords we'll get other types of intervals. C+6 would be M3-M3-m2.)

If someone had asked me to figure out this arpeggio before last week's session I would have had a bit of trouble.

However, by stacking the 3rd "shapes" on the guitar as Griff suggests, finding and playing a mM7 arpeggio is now a piece of cake.

I'm just pointing out that I was already able to make use of an AAP session that we just had a couple of days ago. :)
 
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JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
I dont understand any of this discussion yikes!

E7#9 i can play it but dunno why it is what it is .. maybe when i retire ...
 
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