7th Chords

Stradella Bass

Major 7th Chords

7th Chords

Minor 7th Chords

Sixth Chords

Ninth Chords

Augmented 5th Chords

Diminished Chords

Suspended Chords

Above image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradella_bass_system

The Stradella bass accordion can play a lot of chord types, but many are not all that obvious. In this article we will discuss the “7th chord”. These are notated as “7”.

The plain old 7th chord is probably the easist chord to play on Stradella. You just press the corresponding button in row 5 and you're golden. But, there would not be the need for this article if that was the end of the story!

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, the 7th chords on your accordion do not include the fifth. So, for a C7 chord (C, E, G and Bb) the G (the fifth note in the C major scale) is skipped. In most cases, this is just fine and you and your audience will be happy.

But, if you really want to add that G there are several alternatives:

1. Play the 7th button and add the G by hitting the button in the next column. This is what happens when you play an alternating bass pattern (root, fifth, root, etc.).
2. Use the diminished chord button for the fifth degree. So, in the case of C7 you can play the C bass and a G diminished (one column up). You can also add a G bass note in an alternating pattern, and feel free to duplicate the C bass when needed.
3. Play a major chord (CM) and add the Bb (the 7th) by using the Bb bass button 3 columns down.

See, told you it was easy!