Hey, I moved this thread becasue it seemed more of a theory related question.
You raised two questions. How do I use them, and How do I master/learn them.
I will stick with ‘learning’ because using them is more easily taught with a demonstration, you also need to be listening.
So anyway. If your familiar with your basic chord construction techniques, building these other chords can be quite simple.
Take something like a CMaj7
x
5 <third
4 <seventh
5 <fifth
3 <root
x
If you count up the C major scale in this position C=1 D=2 E=3 F=4 ect.. you will see each note corresponds with the degrees I labeled them with on the tab. Asside from the third, which has been raised one octave.
Now if we look again at the third. and drop just that note by a whole step. We wind up with the 2nd/9th degree of the scale in its place. Like so.
x
3 <9th <<<<<
4 <7th
5 <5th
3 <root
x
This is now a Cmaj9
Lets look at the 7th now. Assuming we want to change it from a Cmaj7 to a C7. As long as we know that the difference between a Cmaj7 and a C7 is the 7th degree. ( Maj7 = 7th degree of a major scale. Dominant7 = b7 degree of the major scale. ) We can flatten that 7 by 1 semi tone.
We wind up altering it like so.
C7
x
5 <3rd
3 < b7th
5 <5th
3 <root
x
Before I continue, let me know if this is where you were headed with the question. These simple alterations are a common way to learn your chord extensions. It is important that your familiar with the relevant scale degrees though.
Mike.
.