Hi
A few weeks ago we set out to discover, learn, and play traditional 3-note shell voicings for major chords. Today we are going to discover, learn, and play conventional 3-note voicings for dominant chords. In my opinion, the hardest skill for all aspiring jazz pianists to master is the art of proper jazz chord voicings. Why? Because instructors often teach chords void of any relationship to scales and arpeggios. For example, the C dominant chord is introduced in every method book sold today as an inverted shape with a missing 5th. So, a student learns C dominant as a chord constructed using three autonomous notes - E, Bb, and C.
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This presentation of the C7 is a gross simplification of the dominant sound. In fact, students learning strictly from a method book often refer to this shape as merely "C7". There is no understanding or reference to the dominant sound at all (not their fault - it's just weak teaching!).
The only way to accurately discover, learn, and play proper jazz voicings for dominant chords is to begin voicing construction from the "whole" dominant sound. You experience the "whole" dominant sound when you see and hear it in scale and arpeggio formats. Once you see and hear the "whole" dominant sound in scale and arpeggio formats, you can begin to make sense of everyday jazz voicings. For example, the C dominant sound can be arranged using the following scale format (C D E F G A Bb) or an arpeggio format (C E G Bb D F A). Either way, you are using the same seven notes to discover, learn, and play the dominant sound. Each musical note of the dominant sound is numbered as illustrated in the diagram below:
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With this knowledge, you'll find the study of jazz piano voicings to be a much more straightforward endeavor. To prove my point, let's look at two traditional three note shell voicings for the C dominant chord which all jazz pianists have in their arsenal. Drawing from the seven available notes in the C dominant 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 can play both of these traditional shell voicings for C dominant, take time to discover, learn, and play the voicings for the remaining 11 dominant chords.
Enjoy learning/mastering these traditional dominant 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. | |
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