| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: three note voicing ..per Levine's book | |
| jazzwanabee -- 06/02/2005, 10:57:17 -- #14433 | |
| Hi all, I was reading through the 2nd chapter of Piano Jazz. Levine makes an interesting point about voicing seventh chords. He says to play only the root, 3rd and seventh chords skipping the 5th. The one constant between minor, major and dominant chords is the perfect 5th so it doesn't have to be played. Do you guys play this way? As an example when playing Autumn Leaves in Eb Minor the chord in the 2nd measure is an Am7 with the melody note being a C. So following this method I would only be playing the A and G notes in my left hand while playing the C in my right (the C melody note in the right hand is the same as the 3rd interval note in the Amin7 chord so it doesn't have to be played in the left hand) Does this make sense? I kind of like it this way because it creates a lighter harmony. Playing all four notes in the left hand is more difficult and make the sound a little heavy. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! | |
| johnq -- 06/02/2005, 11:30:11 -- #14435 | |
| When voicing out chords it is quite common to leave out the 5th as in itself it doesn't define the chord quality in its most concise form as you say. You are also correct to leave out the 3rd in the left hand if it appears in the melody when voicing in a simple way. Of course at other times (perhaps with a bass player) you might want to play a four note voicing in the left hand which may well contain the 3rd and the 5th as well as playing the melody note in the right hand ( being the 3rd). They're just different approaches to the same thing and do give a different sound. | |
| garyinthailand -- 06/02/2005, 14:48:31 -- #14448 | |
| When playing with bass, you can leave out the root too, reducing it to just the 3rd and 7th. An interesting thing happens when you do this. You'll find that just about any jazz progression, the 3rd and 7th with connect into very smooth lines, usually alternating which is on top. For me, this was a revelation and really illuminated the underlying logic of jazz harmony. Try it. Once you have the 3-7 thing solid, you can hang on to it while 'spicing' it with additionaly notes. But any time it gets crowed or ambiguous, come back to the 3rd and 7th. It works. | |
| Styles -- 06/05/2005, 19:40:49 -- #14594 | |
| That's interesting gary For a lighter open sound, three note voicing is perfect. For major 7th chords and dominant 7th chords in a lesser degree you can achieve different textures by utilizing the 2,5,6 tones in their natural forms. In other words, try using the 2nd in place of the 3rd. It's more flexible texture than the 1,3,7 form. water:bricks is 1,2,7:1,3,7 | |
| 7 -- 06/05/2005, 22:05:18 -- #14603 | |
| A revelationary way to think of rootless chords is that you are substituting the 9 for the 1 and you are substituting the 6 for the 5 See what I mean? | |
| d3dy -- 06/06/2005, 03:40:28 -- #14620 | |
| i prefer close voicing with 4 chord notes ex: for GM7 i play (From low to high register)F# G B D GM9 i play G A B F# omitting the 5th They produce Thick sound wich works very well over soloing | |
| sid -- 06/06/2005, 04:25:08 -- #14624 | |
| If you play the root (I) in your voicing, V is a strong overtone and so even if you don't finger it, it'll be there in the sound of the chord. In fact, just playing I and VII often serves for the full chord because the overtone series fills in the gaps. Similarly, playing III VII sounds rich because, of the overtones (particularly the fifth above) on each of the notes. Thus if you play C7 as E Bb, you get A and Eb thrown in - making it effectively C7 #9 13, a nice crunchy extended chord. sid | |
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