Diatonic 7th Chords

by Per Danielsson

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The concept of diatonic chords is taught in traditional music theory. By simply moving a triad up and down a scale, it creates different quality chords. It gives us an understanding of chord functions and the sound of a certain scale.

Listen to the sound of the scale and chords when you play diatonic 7th chords. It creates a thicker and rich sound.

In jazz, the diatonic concept is very useful when it comes to practicing technique and learning scales and their sound. It should not serve as the base of your improvisation since patterns and scales can easily sound mechanical. However, by practicing diatonic chords in patterns you will become a stronger player both harmonically and technically. It’s just another piece of knowledge that is good to have in your bag of tricks.

You can play diatonic chords over any scale. Different scales will create a variety of diatonic chords. This article will demonstrate diatonic chords over:

• Practice the chords slowly and analyze their qualities.
• Practice broken chords, up and down.
• Create new patterns of the diatonic chords.
• Practice in all twelve keys.
• Use a metronome.

If you have questions about the theory of the scales you can refer to back issues of this web site.

Major Scale

The C Major scale becomes Dorian when played over the Dmin chord and Mixolydian when played over the G13 chord.

Harmonic Minor Scale

Diminished Scale


Altered/Melodic minor Scale