This exercise is from the Theory section on Seventh Chords.

Here we look at the E major 7th Chord played in the 'open' position (the lowest position on the guitar neck).

E major 7th is a standard E major triad (1, 3, 5) plus the 7th note from the underlying major scale:

E - F# - G# - A - B - C# - D# - E

The E major triad (1, 3, 5) gives us E G# B, the 7th note is the last interval before the octave, in this case D#.

E Major 7th chord = E G# B D#

Here we play the E major 7th chord with the notes played in the following order from the Low E string to the high E string:

E - B - D# - G# - B - E

Remember that when strumming chords, we have up to six strings so we can 'double up' certain notes from our basic building blocks of E G# B D#. In this case we play an extra E and B note. This gives a fuller strum, but this is not possible with all chords due to the arrangement of notes on the strings.

Also remember that with any chord the order of the notes is variable. Although it is commonly regarded that the root note is the start / finish of the chord (here we start and end with the note E). There are in fact many 'voicings' - ways to play the chord by combining the notes in different orders, and using different fingering. We will be looking more at this later when dealing with chord 'inversions'.

Next we'll look at another major 7th chord - C major 7th - and then compare it to the standard C major chord triad sound.