Understanding Piano Extended Chords

Piano Extended Chords – As mentioned in the earlier lesson, a basic chord consists of only three notes. But then those are not the only chords that you can play! There are so many different chords that can be played using more than three notes. These chords are actually variations made to the basic chords wherein additional notes are added besides the normal ones. These chords are known as Extended chords!

Few examples of Piano Extended Chords

Actually, any note can be added to a basic chord to form an extended chord but here are some of the popular ones.

• Sixth Chord

• Major Seventh Chord

• Minor Seventh Chord

• Seventh Chord

• Ninth Chord

Formula for Chord Construction!

So how do you actually figure out the notes for the above chords? Actually it is not difficult at all if you know your scales. Let us see how they are constructed. We will take C as the Root Note.

C Sixth or C6 – C E G A (C major chord plus the major sixth note from the C major scale)

C Major Seventh or C maj7 – C E G B (C major chord plus the major seventh note from the C major scale)

C Minor Seventh or C min7 – C Eb G Bb (C minor chord plus the flattened seventh note from the C major scale)

C Seventh or C7 – C E G Bb (C major chord plus the flattened seventh note from the C major scale)

C Ninth or C9 – C E G D (C major chord plus the ninth note of the C major scale i.e. D)

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