A Minor 7th chord, also known as an m7 Chord, has a minor triad plus a minor seventh interval.

 

For instance, a Cm7 chord has the notes C, Eb, G, Bb, an Am7 chord has the notes A, C, E, G, and so on.  

 

The Swars are Sa ga Pa ni.

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Another way of understanding Minor 7th chords is to think of the chord being a combination of two overlapping triads. A Minor 7th chord has a minor triad and a major triad overlapping each other. 

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For instance, an Am7 has the notes A, C, E, G. So, if you take the first 3 notes you get an Am chord and if you take the last three notes, you get a C chord. So, an Am7 chord gives you the feel of an Am chord with a touch of C as well! This is very useful if the section of the melody where want to place a chord has all 4 notes and you want to capture all the notes without losing the “minor” feel of the song. 

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Note that a Minor 7th chord can be inverted with the major chord as its base so it gives more of major chord feel with a touch of minor as well! This is known as an Added 6th or simply 6th Chord, see more of this further below in another section.