Chords For Bass – Closed Position 7th Chords
Simplifying The Voicing
In this lesson we’ll create the Four Essential Seventh Chords on bass guitar in closed position, with a root note on the A string.
Seventh Chords are made up of four separate chord tones: Root, Third, Fifth and Seventh. To create a three-note voicing of a four note chord we need to remove one of the chord tones. The Fifth is often our first call when looking to remove chord tones and simplify a voicing.
The Perfect 5th is a very hollow interval lacking the character and defining qualities of both major and minor thirds or sevenths. If we remove the fifth, we still retain the important root note, we still express the major or minor quality through the third and we provide the outline of the extension through the seventh. Without the seventh, the chord would be a basic triad.
This removal of the fifth results in the voicing of: Root, Third, Seventh
Major 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7
We can apply this voicing to the Major 7, Dominant 7 and Minor 7 chords as follows (on a root note of C) (Time 1:39) :
Minor 7 Flat 5
The absence of the fifth works well for the major 7, dominant 7 and minor 7 chords but the Minor 7 Flat 5 provides a problem.
If we remove the diminished 5th of the Minor 7 Flat 5, only the minor 7 chord remains. The flat 5 is a defining part of the chord. So which note do we remove?
The answer is the Third. We cannot remove the seventh. Without the seventh we are left with a basic triad. The root note is the fundamental foundation of the chord and we’ve already ascertained that we need the flat 5. So by way of simple deduction, we have to remove the third. Fortunately, the diminished fifth and the minor seventh intervals are sufficient in providing the Minor 7 Flat 5 quality.
The closed voicing for a Cm7b5 can be seen below (Time 3:40):
Practice Progressions
Below we have three basic chord lines making use of the 4 essential 7th chords in closed voicing:
Progression #1 (Time 4:10)
Progression #2 (Time 5:33)
Progression #3 (Time 7:23)
