How to easily go from major to minor 7

I always say that Major chords are the king of all chords, but even a king needs a little rest sometimes.  You can very easily take a two hand voicing of a Major chord and completely change its character to a minor 7 chord just by changing the bass note you’re playing in your left hand.  Simply go from major to minor 7.

Step 1:  Play a Major Chord in your right hand in any inversion.

Step 2:  Play the root of the chord in your left hand

Step 3:  To change the Major Chord to a minor 7 chord, just move the bass note down 3 keys.

go from major to minor 7 illustration in key of C

This is a simple tutorial on how to go from Major to minor 7 on the keyboard.  Play this C Major chord in any inversion you like.  The key with the black dot is (C) the root.  The orange note (A) is the is the sixth.  Simply play the orange note and you have easily changed the chord into an Am7.

Although I’m showing this in the key of C, you can go from Major to minor using this method in any key.  If fact, this little trick works with any chord, in any inversion, in any key.

That’s it.  How to go from a Major chord to minor.  A simple way to play a harmony with two different chord characters with minimal brain power.

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Greg Lee

Hi, my name is Greg Lee. I'm the creator of the Color Score Professional/Visual Chord Learning System. I love to share ideas and concepts about piano and keyboard playing in all styles of music. I believe the key to learning is having fun and making complicated things simple with visual tools and illustrations.

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