7th Chord Arpeggios Introduction In harmony theory, 7th chords are the basic and natural step from the triads (major, minor etc.) towards more sophisticated chords. Harmony theory is explained in so many books and webpages that i don't see a point in explaining it again. Just let google search for "harmony theory" and you'll get the information.

Now there are three different basic arpeggio shapes: Major 7th (notation: e.g. Cmaj7 or C7), dominant 7th (notation: e.g. G7) and minor 7th (e.g. am7). Diminished chords are also often used, but that's for later.

The sound of the chords is rather bluesy (most of all the dominant 7th) or jazzy (major 7th). The minor 7th reminds of Carlos Santana and is of great use in ballad solos. But actually there's not much difference between the minor 7th and the minor pentatonic: you just leave out the 4th of the pentatonic. That's why personally i find it boring and just play the pentatonic instead. The major and dominant 7th however are not boring at all. You might like them or not, but at least they have personality ;-)

Here are three 7th arpeggio shapes with the basic notes on the e-strings:

The third note from the right in the first bar is doubled because there are two different sensible ways to play this note.

Dominant 7th arpeggios Let's start with the dominant 7th (C7 to be exact):

To play this in a shuffle rhythm is not vital, but it accents the bluesy mood of the melody. If your technique is already quite good you can try the following embellished version of the melody before. If it's too hard, please don't loose your spirits. But also don't sink your teeth in it too long.

Now two little ascending lines:

By the way: all the examples were in C7. Now we'll mix it up a little.

Here are two examples that show you that there's only little difference between the dominant 7th and a minor pentatonic. In fact, you can often play a dominant 7th at parts where you used to play good ol' pentatonic. The left bar in the following section shows a melody line in e minor pentatonic, the right bar the E7 variation of it.

Similarly, but in dm pentatonic and D7, respectively:

Major 7th arpeggios As a rock music guitar player you might not like major 7 arpeggios. They are very jazzy and there's hardly a metal song where you hear a major 7th in a solo. But you obviously want to sound different and put expression to your solos, instead of using the neutral pentatonic or the doomy horror diminished chord all the time. So decide for yourself. Here are two simple examples in Fmaj7 or Bbmaj7, respectively:

A neo-classical line:

A 7th chord progression including dominant and minor 7ths: