Minor Seventh
Ten semitones. On its own it sounds wide and slightly unresolved. Put it in a dominant chord and it becomes the note that makes the chord pull; put it in a minor seventh chord and it becomes the note that makes the chord relax.
- 10 semitones
- 16:9
- restless or relaxed
related pages
What it is
Ten semitones. Invert a major second and you get a minor seventh. In a dominant seventh chord it sits a tritone away from the third, and that pairing is what gives the chord its direction. In a minor seventh chord there is no tritone at all, so the same interval sounds settled.
How to recognise it
Wide and open when played bare, and much easier to recognise once you have heard it inside a chord.
Play it bare, then inside C7, then inside Cm7. Three versions of one interval, and only the middle one is in a hurry.
Where it shows up
In every dominant seventh chord. In every minor seventh chord. In the blues, where the flattened seventh appears in both the melody and the harmony, which is part of why blues does not behave like ordinary tonal music.
What it gets confused with
With the major sixth, one semitone narrower. And with the major seventh, one semitone wider, which is the pair that matters most because it decides whether a chord floats or pulls.
Keep going
Everything in intervals
- Minor Second
- Major Second
- Minor Seventh
- Major Seventh
- Tritone