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I have a hard time with the following description of what a E7 consists of: enter image description here

What does the intervall relate to here? I try to apply it to the Notes (Töne) above it (E B d gis b e`) but that can't fit.

E to B is not an 1 interval it is an interval of 7 (E F Fis G Gis A Ais B) and as I said I could not figure out where the 1 interval belongs to in the Notes. My teacher told me it is called E7 because it is a halfstep note lower to one of the root E notes (E or e`) so there needs to be a Fis (F#) somewhere in the notes description. What am I not understanding here?

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The 1-3-5-♭7 is a relative formula for building chords based on scale degrees of a major scale. 1 indicates the root of the chord so in this case E would map to 1.

From there, it's all directly mapped to the major scale. The 3rd scale degree of E major is G♯ (Gis), the 5th scale degree of E major is B, and the lowered 7th (♭7) is D.

If you were to try an build a dominant 7th on another root like C the same logic would follow. The 3rd scale degree of C major is E, the 5th scale degree of C major is G, and the lowered 7th (♭7) is B♭.

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  • Ah now I got it! I just saw that it is not a triad because the "D" was added there which is the 10th interval (b septime or b7) since the real 7 is "D#" it needs to be lowered by one halfstep and there we have the D. What I don't fully get is why it is called E7 and not Eb7 since it is not the 7th note of the major scale (which is D#) ? – xetra11 Mar 1 at 22:01
  • For some reason the 7 seems to be borrowed from the minor scale -- if you want the major scale one you explicitly write Emaj7. – Luke Sawczak Mar 1 at 23:53
  • @xetra11 see music.stackexchange.com/questions/12607/…. – Dom♦ Mar 2 at 1:08
  • @LukeSawczak it's not derived from the minor scale, see the linked question above – Dom♦ Mar 2 at 1:09
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    No borrowing necessary. The chord E7 doesn't strictly belong to the key of E major. Yes, it gets used in key E a lot, but actually belongs to key A. It's the dominant chord of A. Key A uses D natural, and E7 is totally diatonic to key A. – Tim Mar 2 at 7:43

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