While seventh chords may seem complicated, they are only triads with one additional note. Before studying seventh chords in minor keys, it is best to have a solid understanding of triads in minor keys. My previous blog post was about minor key triadic harmony and included the composite minor scale in addition to the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales.

The focus of this blog post is on the wide variety of choices that minor key harmony offers to composers. More specifically, the focus is on the complete set of seventh chords that can be found in the composite minor scale, which is made of the full set of notes found in the combined natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales.

The page of examples begins with seventh chords in natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales. While the seventh chords are presented first in close position, they are more playable on the guitar using drop 2 voicings. Drop 2 voicings with the root in the bass are spelled (from the bottom up) root, 5^th, 7^th, and 3^rd. Drop 2 voicings can also be spelled with other parts of the chord in the bass. The page of examples has the melodic minor scale used by jazz guitarists, because the melodic minor scale used by classical guitarists is a combination of the melodic minor scale used by jazz guitarists and the natural minor scale.

Most importantly, the page of examples has all the seventh chords in the composite minor scale. The composite minor scale yields sixteen seventh chords. The close position chords are analyzed with Roman numerals, and the drop 2 voicings are labeled with chord symbols. Both Roman numerals and chord symbols are presented because both are commonly used, and they each convey different information about the chords. There is no reason that the Roman numerals are used for the close position chords and chord symbols are used for the drop 2 voicings, they could just as easily have been presented the opposite way (that is, chord symbols for the close position chords, and Roman numerals for the drop 2 voicings).

The page of examples can be downloaded. There is also a shortened version of the download with the seventh chords in the composite minor scale in drop 2 voicings, in both standard notation and tablature.