Jazz Piano Chord Voicings - Chord Voicing Rules 

Thanks, mate. Happy to help :)

Hope you enjoy them :)

Thanks, Sean.

No worries, mate. Thanks for the comment.

Cheers, walkabout. Yep, I'll get onto it as soon as I find the time!

Thanks, mate. Will do.

Hi. I do plan to make such a 'how to practice' video eventually. In terms of good exercises to practice, try the following: 1. Playing a II-V-I (or some other common chord progression) in ever key going around the cycle of fifths. So for example, start with a II-V-I in D (Em7, A7, DMaj7) then a II-V-I in G (Am7, D7, GMaj7) then a II-V-I in C (Dm7, G7, CMaj7) and so on. Or alternately, moving down in semitones. a. Play the above II-V-I's with different chord voicings (Rootless chords, shell chords, bud powell voicings, two-handed/spread/open voicings) b. Then play the above II-V-I chords with your left hand and improvise with your right 2. Learn a Jazz Standard and learn to play it in every key. 3. Learn a Jazz Standard using two handed chord voicings which combine chords and melody...in every key 4. Practice Improvising over a Jazz Standard... in every key 5. Try transcribe a solo or part of a solo - or at least find some licks that you like and try replicate them. 6. Play along with a song or a backing track

yes look up chord theory. How to build the chords they all follow a formula for the root positions build of said chord.

yeah he does play G13b9 not #9. He plays Ab not A#. They're both functionally interchangeable altered tones because of bodal bixture.

Hi, Sorry for my late reply. No, you cannot use every diatonic note in every chord. You have to use available tensions. For example, the natural 11 (F) is not an available tension over a CMaj7 chord, so a CMaj11 is not usually allowed or used (I have a lesson on available tensions which explains this). Instead you would use a CMaj7#11 (C E G B D F# A) - even though the F# is non-diatonic. I also discuss this idea here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WzLBA5kCP1w.html

Thank you for ansewered my comment ! But we can altered any tensions for any chords. But, altered tensions would bring lot of dissonants sound ?

Yep, it's definitely possible to quantify dissonance and consonance. And you don't even need a computer program, really (at least for the basic idealised version). And it has everything to do with the overtone series. And yes, the overtone series also has everything to do with muddy lower notes. I'm currently planning a few lessons on the overtone series, but in short. Our hearing range is between 20 and 20,000 Hz. If you play a note at 5,000 Hz, then you only hear 4 overtones before they leave your hearing range. Fundamental Freq: 5,000 Hz Overtone: 10,000 15,000 20,000 Hz Whereas you hear lots of overtones from the very low notes and so they appear 'richer' and more 'dense' tend to clash more with other notes (precisely because there are more audible overtones to clash with). Fundamental Freq: 50 Hz Overtone: 100 150 200 etc until 20,000 Hz And consonance and dissonance also has to do with the overtone series. The more overtones two notes share, the more consonant they will sound, so two notes at 100Hz and 200Hz will sound very consonant (They is an octave apart) Note 1 Harmonics: 100 200 300 400 500 etc Note 2 Harmonics: 200 400 600 800 1000 etc Whereas two notes at 100 Hz and 120 Hz will have fewer overtones in common and therefore sound more dissonant. Note 1 Harmonics: 100 200 300 400 500 etc Note 2 Harmonics: 120 240 360 480 600 etc But like I said, I'm currently working on a few videos about this which should hopefully be ready in a month or two.

Hi. So number 2 is correct. You are allowed to double the top (soprano) note of any voicing, regardless of what note this is. I simplified this rule in the Open Voicings video just cause that is a very simple and basic chord voicing and I didn't want people to start doubling the 3rd unnecessarily. But in reality you can double any note as long as it is the soprano note.

Thank you for the answer! Have a nice day:)

penis

I always have that same thought, but my assumption is with these rootless voicings are that: a) There's typical a bassist playing the root, so it's advisable not to also play and mask the bassist b) For solo piano - The root is already "implied". I'm led to believe this is after a few progressions that establishing the root in the listener's ear. Surely this may be why so many jazz solos use rootless voicings. Also a note, the voicing you listed as a CMaj13 (E B D A) can't really be considered an E11 as it's missing one of it's most crucial elements, the 3rd (G# in E11). This is especially true for dominant chords as it's the tritone interval between the 3rd & 7th (G# and D) that gives it it's identity. As for B11, it would be Bm11b5 that have the tonic, 3rd and 7th (B D A). However the E stands out, and that would really be the 11. I've never really seen this chord written out before so I'm curious about the usage or if it's just notated differently. The only other voicing I can think of for this combination of notes is E7sus4 but that's a completely different color and is used completely different in relation to the tonic. This was a long-winded answer but hopefully I helped clarify some confusion as I certainly did for myself while thinking this through! haha, now the next step is to have all this in mind real-time.

This is just a mistake, it's a G13b9 like you said :)

Yeah I thought as much, but I always like to ask A. Just to be sure, and so B. If he notices he can add an annotation and make sure other people know too.

Ooops. Yep, just a mistake. Sorry. I'll add a note... Good pick up!

Came here to ask this, thank you

it's a bit like diluating your grenadine syrup too much, by playing large intervals in the right hand, you can loose the quality of the notes. For exemple, playing a second is way more efficience when close to the third (if the third is played or not played by the way), because they influence themselves (like a second without third become a suspended chord,if the interval is too large you loose that "suspended" effect because the second doesn't seem to interract with the missing third anymore). So when you play high, the wilder it gets, the more you lose interactions beetwen the notes, so you loose a bit of your harmony, even if you play the same notes

Kaito Bellamy Big phat thank you :3

You're welcome :) it's just my thought about this subject, wait for our god walk that bass to give you a better answer :)

Kaito's answer is spot on. I couldn't have said it better myself. If you play the notes too far apart, they begin to sound a little unrelated (like separate notes, rather than a single chord). The only thing I can add is that the technical reason for this is because notes that are far apart (like more than an octave apart) share fewer overtones so sound less linked. So there are fewer overtones in common between the notes in a 10th compared to the notes in a 3rd. I plan to make a lesson on the overtone series at some stage eventually...just need to find the time.

Thank you for the answer Btw, first Unanswered Question lecture by Bernstein gave me deeper understanding of overtone series

Hi, The natural 11 is not an available tension over a CMaj7 chord, so a CMaj11 is not usually allowed or used (I have a lesson on available tensions which explains this). And when voicing chords, you're allowed to omit certain notes. This, however, does make chords more ambiguous. But that's half the fun! I explain both ideas in context here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WzLBA5kCP1w.html

Thank you! Actually I saw that video two days later my question and finally understood it :)

ok saw the comments, little mistake there. It's indeed G13b9 - now departing to the all 12 keys II V I altered sequences. Bye bye

When you add extensions, the previous extensions are usually implied. Its your option to play it or not, depending on the sound you want. But also, there will be signs telling you not to play certain intervals such as Cmaj13(no7)

I do agree with you he does do a lot of talking not that it's a bad thing for beginners to know the theory behind jazz and how that particular genre of music works with chord voicings jazz players use. I'm more of a visual learner that helps out the person more than giving the student lecture over the topic of discussion.