Lesson 22 Additional seventh chords

Lesson 22 - Additional seventh chords

Part I - The Supertonic (ii) seventh chord

The supertonic seventh is frequently found in both Major and minor keys.  In the Major key, it exists as a minor-minor quality chord.  In the minor key it exists as a half-diminished (diminished-minor) chord.

Fig.1 supertonic seventh in a major scale

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Fig.2 the supertonic seventh in a minor key

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Fig.3 R.Schumann, Intermezzo, Op.4 No.4, Measure 1

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Part II - The Subdominant seventh chord
The Subdominant seventh chord is most commonly seen in major scales as a Major-major seventh chord.  It commonly precedes a dominant triad in root position.  This is because the dissonance of the IV⁷ needs to be followed by immediate  resolution of the V triad.  It is almost never followed by V⁷.  In figure 3, you can see that the IV is followed by the V triad, not V⁷.

Fig.4 IV⁷ chord in context

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Part III - The Mediant and submediant seventh chords
By far the least common of the diatonic seventh chords, the mediant and the submediant seventh chords are used occasionally.  Both of these chords are minor-minor in Major keys.  And virtually non-existant in minor keys.  If they are used in the minor key, they are most often seen as major-major.


Part IV - Ninth and thirteenth chords
It is possible to continue to add notes to chords.  the next level up from a seventh chord is a ninth  V⁹.  Followed by an eleventh V¹¹.  And finally a thirteenth  V¹³.  At this pont, every note of the scale is present in one chord.  It is necessary to omit some of the chord tones because in most choirs only four voices are present.

Fig.5 ninth and thirteenth chords

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Notice how in this following example, the fifth of the chord (D) is omitted to allow for only four voices to sing the chord.

Fig.6 Ninth chords in context

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Fig.7 V¹³ in context

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