This handout is the second in a twopart series of reference voicings for the jazz pianist. Fourths piano voicings earl macdonald composer, jazz. Right hand can play single notes, octaves, triad shapes, upper extensions, or single line solos over the top. The basic approach is to take the third and sixth voicings aka fourway close and drop the second from top tone down an octave. Ive learned that a chord is built in thirds, 5 and 7 for an extension. Construction of drop ii voicings university of surrey blogs. These voicings work for both onehanded and twohanded voicings. D below middle c up to a above middle c when these voicings are performed, its. Dominant 7b9 chords for dominant 7 b9 chords, use a diminished voicing from any chord tone but the root. Jazz piano works the same way, and understanding the fundaments of jazz piano chords and voicings is the first step towards learning how to improvise and play riffs through jazz chord changes. Triads lesson supplement the triad is the basic building block of many different types of chord. The fondamental drill is playing every chord and every inversion of each chord. While lefthand voicings are suited to righthand soloing or melody, the jazz pianist needs to know how to comp in other words, accompany other soloists. Voicings and notes to play in your piano jazz improvisations.
The voicings pack is a curated collection of 12 lessons from the acclaimed open studio library. Try beginning on the 6th string for the gm7b5 chord and then move to the closest voicing of the c7 chord on the 5th string 3rd fret when you change. The above formula for close voicing is useful as a fundamental approach to divide chord notes between each hand while keeping the melody as the highest note on the piano. Nov 15, 2014 for me it happened when music, shapes and colors integrated. I recently did a post about 12 beginning jazz guitar voicings. After ten years of teaching jazz combos and teaching private jazz lessons mostly to jazz pianists and jazz guitarists, ive learned to keep things simple in the beginning stages so students can experience success right off the bat. They are the first jazz chord voicings that most guitarists learn, and will remain a part of your. Basic rootless piano voicings chris fitzgerald jazz. All piano players get many melodic ideas or lines from their voicings. Note that the root motion in both parts is by 4th or 5th. Voicings on the piano left hand lh consistently plays the 37th of the chord, along with additional notes as necessary. The best way to learn the voicing is to memorise these scale degrees and then apply it to any minor key. Drop 2 chords rop 2 chords are the most popular chord voicings in jazz guitar, and serve a wide variety of purposes, including comping, soloing and chord melody. What is the best way to really learn piano voicings see.
In part one, i pointed out that a 7th chord contains four notes. Many people have requested a jazz piano chords chart but i created this one to be consistent with how i recommend you learn all the voicings covered in proproach learn each one in all the keys and have fun doing it. These piano comping practice tips are meant to give you specific exercises to practices that will improve your harmonic understanding and help you learn the chords to a bunch of jazz tunes. Pdf on jan 1, 2016, daniel scanteianu and others published a fluid. The following lessons introduce some of the basics of jazz guitar chords.
Lets first have a look at how shell voicings are constructed. The ust jazz piano chord voicing collection is a complete method to study and learn all possible upper structure triads voicings over the iim7 and v7 individually and in the progression iim7v7. There are also chords based on stacking fourths instead of thirds. Most of the jazz piano chord lessons include a downloadable pdf file containing the notation in all 12 keys. In that module we learned that chords are built up in thirds. Fourths piano voicings jazz piano voicings built primarily with the interval of a perfect fourth p4, create a more open, spacious sound than voicings comprised of thirds and seconds. In order to improvise you need to know and play every chord very well. In music and art the complexity is generally synonym of ugliness, unnatural, difficulty of understanding. Make all of your voicings and voice leading crisp and clear with the help of two modern jazz piano masters. These quartal chords were made popular by mccoy tyner john coltranes piano player and bill evans for example on miles davis standard so what from the album kind of blue.
Common jazz chord voicings fundamental changes music book. This chord dictionary includes over a hundred jazz chord forms, from basic 7th chords with all standard tension substitutions and alterations to guide tone chords to triads over bass notes. Download free blackbird sheet music beatles pdf for piano sheet music. The kind of voicings it teaches are contemporary, quartalbased sounds you wont find any teddy wilsonstyle stuff, great as he. Notice that the 1st voicing is the most common voicing youve seen, as well as possibly voicing 2. This voicing is valuable to master, as it can be used easily and practically in the context of your favorite standard ballads. In this manner, extensions and alterations often used in jazz can be added as expression while maintaining harmonic symmetry.
Jazz piano by 3 may 2015 jazz piano pdf free download as pdf file. I know its been a personal passion of mine for years. Drop 2 voicings bebop, hard bop, contemporary jazz. The strongest chord tones are r37 on m7 and 7 chords and r36 on tonic chords.
Get ideas for voicings from books and from imitating music on disc. Basic left hand voicings useful when playing with a bass player. Memorize these voicings and get used to playing them from seeing just the chord symbol and not the written notes themselves. The 3rd of one chord becomes the 7th of the next, etc. These voicings mark an evolution in the lefthand comping style of many jazz pianists from the 1950s on. Because its information is highly concentrated it requires concentrated study, but i think it more than repays such effort. Whilst these pdf files can speed up the learning process, try not to become overly reliant on the notation. Two handed voicings are used when other players solo and during. Triads will more than likely be the first types of chords you. You can get the pdf and the guitarpro files for these examples through my. Mar 21, 2016 twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists. Musical instrumentsguitar master the chords used in jazz.
This pdf serves as a compliment to a free lesson that i created emphasizing the rewards of. Jazz piano chords here are a few different common styles of playing jazz piano chords which should give the reader a strong foundation when playing jazz chords with one or two hands. Before moving on to learning these jazz guitar chord voicings types with a 4th string root, combine the 6th and 5th string chords to voice the chords closer together. Jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in their voicings most of the time. Learning jazz piano chords first requires that you are proficient in reading standard major, minor, seventh, and suspended chords. Two beginning jazz piano voicings learn jazz standards. Jazz piano voicings intermediario a avancado introducao muitos livros e artigos excelentes ja foram escritos sobre a arte do piano jazz, cobrindo aspectos gerais relativos ao jazz, como harmonia, improvisacao, escalas etc. Rootless left hand piano voicings left hand rootless voicings are closely associated with the piano style of pianist bill evans 19291980. Bill evans, barry harris, oscar peterson, kenny barron. For a jazz piano player, chord voicings is an essential skill, not only for comping accompanying or laying the chord progression for other players to improvise in but also to use those voicings as an improvisational aid. Jazz piano chord voicings chord voicing rules youtube. Of course, just utilising these voicings as written will give us problems in some keys as they will have to be played too low or too high on the piano to be practical.
The majority of chords that i use in this video are drop2 voicings, and a lot of the. Chord voicings and voiceleading are the primary tools you need to play standard tunes choosing chord voicings so that the individual notes voices move as little as possible from lead sheets. The book starts off by presenting all the voicings in each key. The root what chord is it the third is it major or minor the seventh majorminor6th. Sep 26, 2010 therefore you should never miss these two notes in the chord, except if, for example, you need to play a sus4 chord. Jazz piano chord pdfs most of the jazz piano chord lessons include a downloadable pdf file containing the notation in all 12 keys.
Piano chord voicings for jazz combo the pianist has a few functions in a jazz combo. Sep 07, 2010 youll be comping on your own over standards in a short period of time. Rootless voicings from scratch jason lyon on music. Names like george shearing, mccoy tyner, bill evans and thelonious monk readily come to mind. Actually, i share how i initially became interested in learning about jazz piano chords and how to play them here. Melody generally uses the notes of a chord or notes that return to it. Common jazz chord voicings fundamental changes music. 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. If you are advanced enough you can even play melodies with two hands by making the melody note the same as the top note of your chord. Jazz piano college 122 autumn leaves open voicings youtube.
They have been used by many of the great jazz guitarists including joe pass and wes montgomery. The newest jazz piano chords pdf that i recently made available features those piano chords and voicings that i used during an eight bar segment of a piano video tutorial i created which focuses on the classic harold arlen tune paper moon. Jazz pianists typically play these voicings when comping within a rhythm section, accompanying a soloist. Unlock the improv, melodies, rhythms, and chord voicings of pianist peter martin with 11 pdf transcriptions and audio downloads. All previous rules of voice leading by voicing type apply.
Jul 01, 20 actually, even when there isnt a bass player, and even when you arent playing the root notes on the piano, these voicings are often used to support a melody or solo in the right hand. Seasoned jazz players will often use a combination of various chord voicing techniques and piano. Encyclopedia of lefthand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. Once familiar with basic seventh chords, its good to learn a few different ways to arrange the notes in what are called chord voicings. Also note that each 4set voicing is the same chord, only played in different areas on the guitar. The music, which is wave and moves in predictable ways when you confine yourself to the piano keyboard. Become a bettereducated singer, instrumentalist or teacher of jazz, with a thorough.
Encyclopedia of twohand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. Pdf piano chord voicings for jazz combo jaime pitarch. Jazz piano basics dan davey tensions are non chord tones that are added to a chord to change the colortexture of the chord. Jazz guitar chord voicings fundamental changes music. This creates a shell where extensions, alterations and other chord tones may be added. An approach borrowed from jazz arranging is to drop the 2nd voice from the top down an octave, to create an open voicing that is readily playable on the guitar. Use the general voicing guidelines from page 7, the left hand voicings reference sheet, and the included blues sheets to help. The dominant chord voicing that functions as a passing chord to the chord of the fifth tone is known as chord 5 of 5, which literally means dominant chord voicing of 5 or passing chord to the chord of the fifth tone. Note that scale degrees 10 is the same as 3, 12 the same as 5, 14 the same as 7, and 15 the same as and root. Basic onehand voicings created by adding color tones to the guide tones in the previous example. Voicings deals as its title suggests with chord voicings for keyboard and with comping.
In this module we learned a number of widely used jazz chord voicings. Step 3 figure out voicings for the 3 chords of the basic blues progression. The easiest way to play two handed chords is through the use of upper structure triads. Enjoy lifetime access to these foundational lessons on voicings. It is important to make sure that voicings stay in. The jazz guitar chord voicings in this lesson are designed to get you through the tune. M ost of the guitar chords we use in jazz are constructed by stacking thirds. Below you can find a selection of downloadable pdf files containing the most common chords and voicings.
I 3 5 7 9 g7 ii 9 6 7 3 c i 3 7 9 5 d7 ii 7 3 5 9 g7 i 3 7 9 6 c ii 7 9 3 5 ex. For our beginners, this will be the 25 of the chord, but in advanced voicings, can include any number of tones or structures. We must keep the 3 rd and 7 th to define the chord quality the 1st and 5th are perfectly valid, but theyre not very interesting dominant 7 th chords starting with a dominant seventh chord, we can consider the other notes of the. These advanced jazz piano chord voicings will totally. The herbie hancock voicing is a richsounding, twohanded minor 11th chord. Then, for each individual voicing, say a major chord voiced as 3569, theres a twopage exercise which does two measures of the voicing, just as a whole note, with a bass line under it which is 1585, and then repeat this in all twelve keys. Basic twonote guide tone voicings, containing only the 3rd and 7th of each chord.
Mar 15, 2016 jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in their voicings most of the time. The phrase chord voicings refers to the way the notes of a chord are arranged, both in musical notation and on our instrument. Each of the above chords are examples of different voicings for a c major triad. Twohanded voicings we now move on to an oftenneglected aspect of jazz piano, and that is comping. Piano improvisation technique corcoran high school. 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.
No piano skills are required to use this book effectively. Dont get caught not knowing what to play over certain chord changes. For our purposes, all voicings built up from the 3rd will be referred to as type i voicings, and those built up from the 7th will be called type ii. Open voicings standard formulae jazz piano college 120. When you find something you like, try and play it in all keys. Introduction to jazz guitar chords and comping styles. In addition to removing the 1, the 5th is often omitted, leaving the 3rd and the 7th.
Includes written voicings over many of the most popular aebersold playalong tracks including 11 tracks from volume 54 maiden voyage, so you can comp with bass and drums backing you up. Individual upper structures triads over iim7 and v7 paperback ebook. This book will allow you to explore some fundamental chord voicings. Piano comping practice tips cocktail piano lessons. Common piano chord voicings ive taught myself all i know about playing piano from reading about music theory and watching youtube. The reel score, llc services original music composition. Sample f blues chorus shown using basic left hand chords, octave right hand melody, typical comping rhythms. A shell voicing is the bare necessities version of a jazz chord, so the chord is reduced to three notes.
Learn more about jazz piano chord voicings and more here. Remember that its important to memorise the formulas for the voicings in terms of scale degrees. Listen click music player stream music chord voicing beautiful melody, fantastic chord voicing, demands jazz piano. A piano voicings pdf that coincides with the first video session in my sneak peeks series is available and may serve you well in a couple of ways. Altogether, there are three dominant chord voicings you need to be familiar with in any given key. Jazz piano basics dan davey usually, the guide tones resolve within a step to the next chord. All pages are free to download aug 18, 2016 new jazz piano chords pdf the. Modern jazz voicings download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. There are scores of voicings for every chord type because, after all, a voicing is just a way of combining the notes of a chord into different intervals. In the previous jazz chord voicings lesson, we learnt how the most common jazz chords are constructed. Rootless left hand piano voicings earl macdonald composer.
So, for c7b9, you can play a diminished voicing from either e, g, bb or db b9. Firstly, if you decide to get involved with that popular video session, you will have a reference chart for the voicings that are being played. I created a jazz piano voicings pdf that you can actually download for free. Therefore we have the inversion shape of these chords as shown in fig. Im following up that post with this article on beginning jazz piano voicings. All of these are chord tones ct, and therefore, these are not tensions. An arranging technique used when voicing for four horns. Chord voicing chord voicing is the process of choosing and arranging the notes of a chord in a particular the notes of a chord can be arranged in many ways as illustrated in the example below. Jazz piano techniques, rhythms and voicings youtube.
Individual upper structures triads over iim7 and v7 paperback pdf. Two handed chords are great for comping behind a soloist. This is an short encyclopedia with 12 voicings for most of the chords jazz pianists are likely to encounter. Therefore, he needs two different types of voicings. First, he comps for, and interacts with, other players as they solo. We have already discussed jazz chords in a previous module. Put your right hand pinky on the root of the chord and continue down in 4ths.
Also analyse it what type of chord is it, what are the extensionsalterations, how is the chord voiced. Rootless voicings are preferred in jazz piano and guitar playing, especially when playing with a bassist. Jazz guitar chord voicings fundamental changes music book. It is my hope that this site serves as a nice compliment to your passion for learning more about the wonderful world of jazz piano voicings. A chord voicing is just a way of altering the order of and intervals between the notes in a chord. In other words, quartal chords a fourth apart in this sequence. Use both a and b voicings to streamline chords once both voicings have been mastered on all chords the student can utilize either inversion a or b to minimize hand movement. Once you purchase a sheet music, you will be able to download the pdf file right away from the website.