Essential Voicings For Jazz Piano Pdf

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Assuch, there are several possible ways to voice any given chord. How you choose to voice a chord determines whether it sounds thick or thin, dark or bright, transparent or opaque. However, the study of chord voicings is not only limited to the tones within a four-note 7th chord. Chord voicing also refers to the application of any extensions and alterations. For example, each of the voicings below represent a different voicing approach to the chord symbol Am7.

This progression is called a cycle of 5th progression. You can learn to master this chord progression in swing, bossa nova, and jazz ballad styles in our course Cycle of 5ths in 3 Jazz Styles (Level 2, Level 3).

When using Bud Powell voicings in a cycle of 5th progression, the R7 and R3 shells should alternate from chord-to-chord. This results in smooth voicing leading in the tenor register as in the following example.

Another common Bud Powell shell is R10 (Root + 10th). This, of course, is a variation of R3 since a 10th is a compound interval of a 3rd plus an octave. However, many pianists are unable to reach this interval, or can only able to reach particular 10ths, such as intervals from white-key to white-key as in measure 4 below. Sometimes, you can add the 10th in right hand to achieve this sound.

Bud Powell style chord shells are especially well suited for solo jazz piano because they incorporate the roots of each chord into a simple bass line. In addition, these voicings allow the jazz pianist to play a melody much lower in the right hand than other voicings we will cover later, such as rootless voicings, which may force a melody up the octave. Finally, many two-hand voicings are built upon these left hand shells.

A second application for using guide tones is to play them with the root of each chord or immediately after. In either case, this is certainly an intermediate level skill as it involves a larger hand reach or quick lateral movements in the left hand. However, this approach is particularly relevant for solo piano settings in which there is no bass player holding down the roots.

Most commonly, the term rootless voicings refers to a fairly standardized set of four-note jazz piano voicing constructions for left hand that omit the root while adding colorful chord extensions. However, three-note variations are also popular and can be formed by simply removing the 2nd tone from the bottom of the four-note constructions. Rootless voicings are generally played between the range of C3 to A4.

In small group settings that include a bass player, rootless voicings enable the jazz pianist to generate wide array of beautiful and arresting chord colors. However, rootless voicings are also common in solo jazz piano performance.

Most jazz piano texts introduce rootless voicings over the major 2-5-1 progression. This is an excellent point of entry as it familiarizes students with the three most commonly occurring chord types in jazz repertoire. The chart below demonstrates how to build A voicings and B voicings for each of these three chord types.

Notice that the visual shape of these voicings in notation form varies depending on whether the stem points upward or downward. Familiarizing yourself with these shapes can help you recognize rootless voicings more quickly.

The fourth step, ornamentation, adds additional stylization in the left hand. Jazz pianists love to add ghost notes and chromatic scoops and slides in the left hand melody. This is particularly common at the beginning of a phrase, after a rest, or on longer tones. The example below adds a ghost note to the pick-up notes and a chromatic slide up to the C whole note.

The Drop 2 technique uses 4-note jazz piano chord voicings. This sound is constructed similar to the 5-note Shearing style voicings, but is generally played higher on the instrument has and a more tender and modern sound.

A quartal voicing is any jazz piano chord voicing that uses stacks of two or more 4th intervals. Quartal voicings can be played in one hand with three notes or in two hands with four, five or even six notes. Ideally, quartal voicings seek to maximize perfect 4th intervals. However, it is common for some of the intervals to be a 3rd or augmented 4th depending on the chord type and melody note.

Note that this quartal voicing contains the minor 11th, the note D. Therefore, the specific name for this chord is Am11. Another interesting thing about quartal voicings is that they are ambiguous. In fact, the same voicing can often be used from more than one chord! For example, the voicing above also works for the following chord symbols:

Congratulations! You have gained important history, theory and application with the six most important jazz piano chord voicings. In fact, you can continue to play jazz piano chord voicings in one of the following courses or learning tracks based on your level:

Courses are comprised of lessons and are based on selected styles of music and learning focus topics. PWJ offers regular courses, workshops which include teacher interaction, and challenges which are divided into a 4 week learning format.

Smartsheets use the Soundslice sheet music player to give students digital access to all arrangements and lesson sheet music. Smartsheets provide audio playback, light-up key notation, transposition, looping, and other learning tools.

To facilitate my teaching, I have further subdivided the above two facets of Jazz into Theory and Practice components. We have already discussed the Theory aspect (Jazz Chords and Jazz Scales) so it's time to discuss how to apply the theory in Practice (with Jazz Chord Voicings and Jazz Improvisation).

We have already discussed Jazz Chords in a previous Module. In that Module we learned that chords are built up in thirds. For example, you could play a CMaj7 chord as C E G B with each note a third above the previous (called 'tertian harmony') and all the notes within the range of an octave (called 'close harmony' or 'block chords'). While this is nice and simple, it unfortunately is not enough.

A chord voicing is just a way of altering the order of and intervals between the notes in a chord. So instead of playing CMaj7 as a block chord (C E G B) we could reorder the notes and play C B E G - which spans two octaves (called 'open harmony'). This is considered more sophisticated and 'jazzy'.

This series of lessons will cover some widely used Jazz Chord Voicings, then discuss how to combine them, and finally give some general chord voicing rules so you can create your own voicings. And after learning how to voice chords, in the next Module we learn some common Jazz Chord Progressions where you can apply your newly acquired voicings.

The best way to practice chord voicings (and Jazz in general) is by playing actual songs. Try apply each chord voicing you learn in each of these lessons to a particular Jazz Standard you enjoy. Plus it's more fun than just playing scales up and down all day!

Jazz Chord VoicingsRootless VoicingsMonk VoicingsPowell VoicingsThree Note VoicingsOpen VoicingsSo What ChordBarron ChordHancock ChordQuartal VoicingsUpper StructuresLocked HandsAdvanced Locked HandsCombining Chord VoicingsChord Voicing RulesHow to CompWalking Bass-linesMinimum RequirementsJam SessionsTone ClustersHow to Play Jazz PianoComp for a VocalistWhen to Use VoicingsStride Piano

And secondly, what's the melody note in relation to the chord? i..e. what scale degree is the melody note in relation to the chord - is it the 9th, 5th, 11th, root, etc?

Then, on top of this basic background, you can start to 'pepper in' a few advanced chord voicings using the 'melody-matching' technique - whenever you spot a chord / melody note for which you know an appropriate chord voicing.

Play through the songs in your real book using the simple 'chord + melody' texture discussed above. While doing this, look out for opportunities to 'pepper in' any sophisticated chord voicings you already know.

Julian Bradley is a Jazz pianist and music educator from the U.K. He has a masters degree in music composition and loves helping musicians learn Jazz piano and reach their music goals. YouTube channel.

Every type of chord, from Major7 b5 to V7 #5, can be played in root position. Get to know the layout of the keyboard by playing these voicings in every key. Try this exercise for starters, which goes through the most common seventh chords of one key in succession:

As you gain some familiarity with the piano, you will want to find some voicings that are more interesting and move more logically. Playing chord progressions in root position, while good for slowly studying individual chords, will sound very disjunct when played in succession:

Below is a four note rootless ii-V voicing in the style of Bill Evans. Notice how the upper structures (9ths, 11ths, and 13ths) are emphasized and how smooth voice-leading is incorporated throughout the progression:

Once you are able to voice some basic chords, you can put this skill to use to benefit your ear. The piano should be your starting point for working on ear training, from intervals to complex chords and lines. By knowing some simple voicings, you can cover a ton of ear training exercises.

Either way, studying and hearing how the line corresponds to the underlying harmony is essential to ingraining these lines into your musical conception. By isolating lines in this fashion, you can not only hear what is happening with the line harmonically and intervalically, but physically see it as well.

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