Hi
Our Jazz Piano Skill this week focuses on constructing traditional 3-note shell voicings for major chords. In my opinion, the hardest skill for all aspiring jazz pianists to discover, learn, and play is the art of chord voicing. Why such difficulty? Because chords are typically taught void of any relationship to scales and arpeggios. For example, the C major chord is (almost always) introduced as a simple triad consisting of three autonomous notes - C, E, and G. This is, quite simply, a gross simplification of the major sound which is used to create various configurations of major chords (voicings).
The only way to discover, learn, and play good jazz voicings for major chords is to explore the "whole" major sound. You experience the "whole" major sound when you see and hear it in scale and arpeggio formats. Once you see and hear the "whole" major sound in scale and arpeggio formats you can begin to make sense of jazz chord construction. For example, the C major sound can be arranged using a sequential scale format (C D E F G A B) or using an arpeggio format (C E G B D F A). Both ways, you are using the same 7 notes and each note is numbered as illustrated in the diagram below:
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Armed with this understanding you'll find the study of jazz piano voicings to be a much simpler endeavor. To prove my point, let's look at two traditional three note shell voicings for the C major chord which all jazz pianists have in their arsenal. Drawing from the 7 available notes in the C major sound (diagrammed above), voicing option 1 uses the 3rd, 7th, and 9th while voicing option 2 uses the 7th, 3rd, and 5th. Study the illustration below and listen to the video to hear these beautiful voicings. | |
Finally, once you you can play both of these traditional shell voicings for C Major, take time to discover, learn, and play the voicings for the remaining 11 major chords.
Enjoy learning/mastering these traditional major shell voicings!
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P.S. I highly recommend using an application like iReal Pro or software like Band In A Box when practicing. Hearing and Feeling a skill within a musical context makes all the difference in the world - it expedites your musical development. | |
