Circle Of Sevenths

Why ?
Because the progression of a seventh to the chord a fourth above it is used all over the place.

Here I have covered one set of the Seventh Chords which can be played on guitar in an endless loop for practice. Guitar Tabs are given. Every chord has a barre by the first finger across all six strings. The objective was to save as much as possible jumping all over the fretboard.

All these chords have depth because they use the 5th and 6th strings.

If you find the barre too difficult just miss out say, the 5th and 6th strings. If you are in a group the bass guitarist would want to play these notes anyway.

This is the Circle Of Sevenths by fourths (ascending), or if you prefer, by fifths (descending).

The B7 chord has been defined using flats to conform to the series of chords before it. This helps you to more easily see the movement of the inner parts of the guitar chords as you progress from the Gb7 to the B7 and E7.

As you play these chords you can hear how all the inner parts move. It is enjoyable to just play the top line notes. Then from the beginning just play the second notes from the top of the chords, then have a listen to the third notes from the top, etc.

Then play all the full chords again and it's great to hear how all these different parts work together to produce the smooth progression. It can be a real "ear-opener".

Exercise 1. Play the circle of sevenths as shown in the upper diagram.

Exercise 2. Play all the inner parts, one line at a time as described above.

Here's how the patterns look on the guitar fretboard -

     etc... etc

Exercise 3. Starting as far up the fretboard as you can, play the patterns all the way down as far as you can get.

Considering that the progression of the 7th chord to the chord a 4th above is so prevalent, if you become skilled at this you have covered a huge chunk of guitar music.

Exercise 4. As you play the chords, say the names of them out aloud, or silently to yourself.

You will have noticed that in the first pattern, the name or root of the chord is the note on the 6th string (the thick E string).

Also in the second pattern, the name or root of the chord is the note on the 5th string.