Jazz Piano Chord Voicings - Chord Voicing Rules
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
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This Jazz Piano Tutorial is about Chord Voicing Rules.
When playing a chord, take account of:
- Chord itself - notes that make up the chord
- Chord voicing - the order of and interval between notes
The voicing of a chord relates to the intervals between the notes. You can alter the tension of the chord by altering the voicing of the chord, even if you’re playing the same notes.
Generic Chord Voicing Rules:
- Avoid using too many 3rds (too boring)
- Using 4ths and tritones creates a more ‘open’ and ‘harmonically ambiguous’ sound
- Play wider intervals at the bottom
- Play dissonant intervals in the middle
- Play a consonant interval like a 3rd or 4th between the two highest notes
- Avoid ‘doubling’ notes within the chords, except the top note which can be doubled
- Keep all intervals smaller than a Perfect 5th, except the interval between the two bottom notes that can be wider
If you enjoyed this Jazz Piano Tutorial on Chord Voicing Rules, please subscribe.
have been studying classical piano for almost 3 years now. I've tried to make my way into jazz, but i always seemed to struggle with voicings. Thank you for your insight
I love the concept of manipulating voicing tension. Never conciously thought of that. Thank you
I learned more from your videos than my entire music degree. Love the way you explain rules
Thanks, mate. Happy to help :)
Walk That Bass is one of the BEST jazz piano tutors. You create videos that makes it easy to learn and inspirational
Damn in 1 year of desperately trying to compose, i finally understand how to voice a chord. Thank you so much, that was a very useful video
Damn, your videos are exactly what I've been looking for! Also for free :)
Hope you enjoy them :)
This video got tense toward the middle but resolved just perfectly toward the end.
Such a good video, thank you for making this!
This video is absolute gold mate, have been trying to understand what goes through players minds when they're thinking about harmony. This is much deeper than tonic sub dominant dominant and really sheds some light on how harmony creates movement in music.
Thank you!
Perfect lesson! Brilliantly clear, and demystifying! Thank you so much!
I've never heard the 9, 11, and 13 called tensions before. I was taught they were called extensions. Thank you for the insight. Great content, more jazz in the world!!
You explained Exactly what I needed... Thanks man..
You've been helping me a lot quite lately and i want to a say very big thank you to you . God richly bless you.
This is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!
can't wait for the voice leading lesson
Thank Uuuu. Manific teaching.🙏👍💐👏⭐
This is a very useful and easy to follow video. Thanks for sharing such great content!
You are amazing, thank you so much
This is awesome. Thank you
Great video!
Very insightful, thanks heaps!
Great teacher. Very well explained
EXCELLENT...just what I needed. Greetings from Argentina!
I clicked back on the browser after i watched and liked to comment, excellent work - thanks to you :) How you've explained things makes sense and generates ideas. Cheers!
Great video, thanks!
That's awesome. Thanks
This is amazing!
you are a great teacher! Thanks for sharing
Thanks, Sean.
very cool!
Thanks I found this extremely useful.
Very useful.. thank you ! 😀
I just want to say your website has helped me so much more than any other resource out there. You packed so much good information in one place, THANK YOU, Bless you.
No worries, mate. Thanks for the comment.
Wow, great video!
very insightful and clear explanations, thanks mate! can't wait for the voice leading video.
Cheers, walkabout. Yep, I'll get onto it as soon as I find the time!
Brilliant!! What a channel! 8 )
it helps me a lot, thanks for ur lesson ! and for free !
THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS IS SO CONCISE.
Thank you
great video
This helps alot
Always usefult
Howdy there, keep up the good work. Concise and informative.
Thanks, mate. Will do.
i like this
Thank you for the great information - I hope you get your piano tuned soon...
Hi! I have some questions on this topic!
1. I wonder how 'harmonic tension' is determined depending on its chord type. V7 seems to have high tension, seeing that it has a tritone between its 3rd and 7th note. So, is it determined by which intervals the chord type has? And is it possible to row up chord types according to their sizes of harmonic tension?
2. If tension is divided into two tensions, harmonic tension and voicing tension, what is the tension made by melodies over a certain chord type, which you covered in Reharmonisation section?
3. Is it possible to quantify tension, adding up all the tensions, the harmonic tension, and the voicing tension(, and the tension made by melodies)?
Thank you!
Hi, I am a starter in Jazz piano~~~ Your videos are great help to me~!!^^
I was wondering with you can make a video about "practice routine." separating the beginner/Intermediate/Advance.
There's a lot to study and I can't get a grasp of what to practice as a beginner
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
Thanks for the really helpful video on voicings. I do understand them better now.
I noticed a mistake in the end of the video. While playing the II-V-I with resolution voicing you play the V with an Ab instead of A#. (Has happened to me as well ;))
Further i ask myself how to fit in C6 chords. Is the 6 also an available tension or an chordtype itself How is it, that you can play the C6 instead of maj7?
Do you have a video on walking bass? Or any other interesting sounds for left hand?
Thank you so much!
Super helpful and interesting vid, cheers. How do you visualise the chords? You just memorise all the note of each chord over time?
yes look up chord theory. How to build the chords they all follow a formula for the root positions build of said chord.
Nice video for getting introduced to piano voicings! I studied modern piano when I was a teenager and then moved to drums, which I am currently studying. However now that I know a bit more about harmony, I picked back the piano and this video helped a lot to reestructure my mind around chord voicings, thank you! I have a doubt though... around 8:30, you say you play a G13#9, but isn't it b9 what you are actually playing? Shouldn't it be A# instead of Ab?
yeah he does play G13b9 not #9. He plays Ab not A#. They're both functionally interchangeable altered tones because of bodal bixture.
Thank you for your great video hopefully you will continue ! I have a question, can we play every diatonic note on a voicing Exemple: on a Cmaj7 we can play C,D,E,F,G,A,B so what is the difference between extension and regular chords ?
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: th-cam.com/video/WzLBA5kCP1w/w-d-xo.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 ?
does tjis a apply to modern popular music too?
Great video as always but the G13#9 in the last two progressions is being played as a G13b9. G13#9 would have two semitone intervals in that voicing, a second one between A# and B.
As a computer science project do you think it's possible to quantify dissonance or consonance by sequential tones and all intervals in general?
Also are overtones related to this? Also can you quantify clarity of sound by analyzing audible overtones? Like why closer lower notes sound muddy?
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.
Much helpful video! thanks!
By the way, I wonder which instruction I better follow.
1. In Open Voicing lesson, the Doubling rule allowed only a top note as the root note to double, which you took for an exception of the Doubling rule.
2. But in this lesson, though the example is about a top note as the root note of the chord, it seems that the Doubling rule allows a top note to double any note of the chord.
Thank you!:)
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:)
Can we hear you play anywhere in a non educational context?
penis
Should inversions follow these rules? In that case, no reason to play the 1st and 3rd inversion of a 7th chord because you would have a semitone in the bass or melody? Similarly, should you not play a maj6 in root position to avoid the secundal interval?
I have a question that's troubling me.
If CMaj13 can be voiced : E B D A
Wouldn't it be closer to a E11 ? (tonic as bass note, 5th and 7th) or even a B11 (contains the tonic, the 3rd, the 7th) ?
I guess at this point it's nitpicking, but maybe you could shed some more light on this issue ? ;)
Thank you so much for these brilliant videos !!
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.
I'm aware that you're not back until January but...
In the picture-in-picture at 9:42 or so, your G13#9 chord is listed, as makes sense, as E-F-A#-B.
But you seem to be playing E-F-*G#*(or Ab)-B, which is a G13b9 I suppose instead. Is there a reason for this? Not that it makes it significantly less dissonant, what with the semitone E-F and the tritone F-B. We just dropped one semitone.
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
Great video. Thank you
Btw, why is it preferable to avoid intervals bigger than perfect fifth in right hand?
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
Maestro: please help me at the time set of 8:29 in this wonderfull video. You are playing the G 13 Sharp 9, here I see you playing, I think the E Note the F Note the #G/bA Note the B Note. My question the chart states you are playing E F #A (A Sharp) B. Please explain to me that you are playing in the video the #G/bA Note. Thank you very much, respectfully, R
Can I use the note F in order to create a Cmaj11 chord (C E G B D F)? Also, when you say that a Cmaj13 chord can be voiced as E B D A, I tend to visualize this as a Bm7(add11) chord if there's not a C as bass note. Is this correct?
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: th-cam.com/video/WzLBA5kCP1w/w-d-xo.html
Thank you! Actually I saw that video two days later my question and finally understood it :)
If the audio quality was reasonable, this would have been a really good online lesson.
8:29 isn't it a G13 FLAT 9? the 9 of G is a A right? in the scheme itself it says A#, but in the piano he's playing G#
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
Is it normal to get kind of frustrated when you're starting out with rootless/ more complex left hand voicings? I'm currently trying hard to apply those when playing standards and I've known chords for a long time , the shape of them on the piano, what they sound like etc ... but all these new possibilities make it seem like they are completely different chords sometimes... makes it hard to memorize :'( any tips ?
I think you mislabeled the Dominant chords in your C major example, aren't you playing a G13b9 chord rather than a G13#9 chord?
Whats your cash app, you deserve a tip
th-cam.com/video/qNff0NZiXC8/w-d-xo.html In this part not sure if you meant to say flat9 instead of sharp9. cause it seems like G7b9 chord you are playing there.
What's confusing me is that you're playing a 'Cmaj13' at 6:54, but you're playing a B which is the 7th. How come the chord voicing doesn't mention the 7th, and how is someone meant to know to play the B if you were to only say Cmaj13? Thank you for the helpful video!
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)
9:58 you are playing a b9 not a sharp 9. Thanks for the vids though, very useful
Here is a question that's been bugging me. What's the point of a chord having so many extensions that it contains practically every tone of the scale? Through different voicings you can change it into almost any other chord. It makes no sense to me.
The G7#9 in the 2-5-1 is wrong! Its a G7b9!
You talk to much in your video. Find a way to do less talking. Good video but for advanced students we want more visual then talking. Give more credit to your audience. If they are beginners then they need to watch the beginner videos.
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.