Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lessons

Play Song: Bittersweet Rainy Day

 
Not Helpful
Helpful
Very Helpful

Now it's time to perform our rainy day-major 7 chord song with our virtual band.

Major 7 chords are extremely common in all types of music, and as I hope you've experienced in this tutorial, they create a very powerful mood. Finally, here's a potentially confusing thing that you need to remember. Whenever you see a chord symbol, meaning just the letter name, for example, E.

If it only says 7, like E7, then it means the bluesy dominant 7 chord from the previous tutorial. Whenever it's a major 7 chord it's always specified. There are many ways to notate this, but the most typical is maj7 or just ma7. If it doesn't say that, and only has the number 7, it's always a dominant 7 chord. And again, if you come across a major 7 chord you don't know yet, you can almost always just use a regular major chord.

Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Major 7 Chords
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Play Song: Bittersweet Rainy Day song notation
0:00 / 0:00
Lower Volume

Higher Volume
Play Song: Bittersweet Rainy Day By Anders Mouridsen

You need to be registered to ask our instructors a question.

Questions & Answers

1 week ago
Thank you for the metronome suggestion for this lesson. I admit I have never used a Metronome so I can use some guidance. The first 4 bars are not a problem as they are whole notes so 1 strum for a count of 4 clicks on the metronome. But going forward bar 5 thru 12 each strum will be 1 click on the metronome ? If yes to all, are you recommending I go thru the whole lesson with the metronome or just practice a few bars at a time over and over until I'm clean with a few bars before I move on and add more bars ? Thanks
Mike Olekshy 1 day ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your question! Bars 5-12 are a little more complicated. The strum pattern is D DU DU DU for each measure (D=downstroke, U=upstroke). Every downstroke occurs on the click, but the upstrokes occur in between the clicks of the metronome for beats 2, 3, and 4. (there's no upstroke on beat 1). So try and time your upstrokes so that they are equally spaced between the downstrokes (there won't be a click to line up with for those upstrokes). You might have to slow the metronome down for this, but it's worth the extra effort. For practicing - I recommend starting just with bar 5 and looping that over and over nice and slow. You will be burning the strum pattern into your muscle memory by doing that. Since the same strum pattern is used in bars 6-12, once you have the strum down better, then you can move on to making the chord changes. The final step will be putting all the parts of the song together and playing everything through with the metronome. Hope this makes sense - and helps!!

2 weeks ago
I have a major issue with this lesson and the prior lesson - learning to play this song. My problem is coordination switching chords, placing my fingers where they belong. I spent 8 days at 45 minutes each day on the previous lesson - learning the song both by myself with no video then with the video. And now I'm on my third day here. I'm "ok" playing myself, slow no beat take my time, pause between switching chords but trying to play this video with the backing band even at .75 video speed, I'm not changing chords properly, I find myself pausing and behind in switching chords. My motor skills are not able to keep up.
Mike Olekshy 1 week ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your question! It is completely normal to feel frustrated right now, but 8 days is a very short time for your muscles to map these entirely new movements. Muscle memory builds through slow, perfect repetition, and your brain is still calculating where each finger goes. To break through this bottleneck, stop playing with the video for the next few days and focus exclusively on "chord transitions" using a metronome set to a very slow, comfortable tempo. Practice moving between just the chords of the song back and forth, aiming to land your fingers perfectly on the beat, and only increase the speed by 5 beats per minute once you can do it flawlessly ten times in a row. Keep at it - it will come!! Hope this helps!

1 year ago
Thanks for responding!
Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

You're welcome!

1 year ago
Are you telling me this poster: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Walrus-Productions/Guitar-Chord-Poster.gc That I got from some guitar/music museum in Seattle years ago - maybe here: https://www.mopop.org/exhibitions/guitar-gallery Has no major 7 chords on it? (feeling disappointed in the poster - may have to add some sticky notes) I just asked my son to come down and he is showing me on the piano. He says the major 7 chords are used in jazz music. true? (he is only 16, I trust but verify) Anyways, I love the major 7 chord sounds ! Thanks!
Mike Olekshy 1 year ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your question!! Yes, plenty of chord posters don't include major and minor seventh chords. Not sure why!! They are indeed great sounding chords - used not only in jazz, but many other genres!! Here's an intro tutorial on major 7th chords: https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson/29696 And the minor 7th chords: https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson/11435