Originally Posted by: ovaltineThanks. Ya, that makes sense, but we are using the flattened 7th chord for this lesson right? So it would be Gb major, which doesn't sound very good in the progression.

You are confusing flat with minor.

Scale degrees should be referred to as major or minor. Whereas the chord progression degree they are built upon are referred to as flat or sharp. The confusing part is that any given note can be natural (as in the note G), sharp (as in G-sharp) or flat (as in G-flat).

But here's the issue: a minor scale degree or a flatted chord progression chord can happen to land on a natural note, a sharp or a flat. Examples!

A major scale:

A - 1st
B - 2nd
C# - major 3rd
D - 4th
E - 5th
F# - major 6th
G# - major 7th

A minor scale:

A - 1st
B - 2nd
C - minor 3rd
D - 4th
E - 5th
F - minor 6th
G - minor 7th

See why we call scale degrees major instead of sharp or flat? Just because the G is the 7th note of the A minor scale we don't add a flat. It's already flatted (i.e. minor) being an interval of a minor 7th from the root note of the scale A.

Now if we built a chord on the 7th degree of the A minor scale we get G, B, D and we refer to it as a Flat 7th using Roman Numerals: bVII.

That make it clear? :)