Major Seventh On Steroids

What is Major 7th on Steroids? Well, Major 7th on steroids is Jamal's PHAT way of playing an M7th chord by adding the 9th to it and removing the 3rd.

Ok, don't let the definition confuse you if you can't really grab that.
The idea is that you are not playing a M7th chord the normal way. You are adding some "phatness" to it.

This is just the concept

On the key of C, you would play a chord 6 like this:
A E / G B C E
By inverting the notes on the right hand and expanding the left hand, you would have:

A E G / C E G B

Now to make that chord sound phat; That is to make it an M7th on Steroids chord, we do this:
A E B / C G B D

Now if you have not been stretching your fingers, that would be hard for you to play. I also couldn't play that easily at first but with constant exercise and practice I can now easily stretch my fingers to play those notes.

Now let me show you how to add more phatness to that chord.

It's about this concept in gospel keyboard whereby you hold two notes together with your thumbs just to make your chords sound fuller :)

I do that a lot and I love the sound I hear when I do it. You can incorporate that into your playing if you have not been doing so.

M7th on Steroids "PHATER"
A E A B/C D G B D

• To play the one on the left hand you need to use your thumb to hold down the notes A & B
• To play the notes on the right, you need to use your thumb to hold down the notes C & D

Here is a vamp that you can play with M7th on steroid chords only
It's 2 bars in length with the 4/4 time signature
First 2 chords are 2 counts each and the last chord has 4 counts. Enjoy!

E B Gb/G D Gb A | A E/G Db F A | D A E/F C E G



This post was requested by Fx Piano Fajulugbe