There’s a big gap between knowing what chords are and playing chords like Bill Evans! If you hope to bridge that gap, you should study chord voicings!
Chord voicings refer to the many different ways you can express harmony. Yes, a C chord is only made of a C, an E, and a G, but you can express these notes in many ways. In this article, we’ll review common types of jazz chord voicings used by jazz pianists and guitar players.
By the end of the article, you will have exponentially increased your ability to articulate harmony! We’ll go over 10 types of chord voicings you need to know and discuss actionable ways you can practice them to become the best player you can be!
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Table of Contents
What Are Chord Voicings?
Let’s start with a basic definition.
Chord voicings are the specific arrangements or combinations of notes within a chord. Chord voicings describe how a chord’s notes are placed in relation to one another. Different chord voicings correspond to different arrangements of notes and affect the sound, texture, consonance, dissonance, and clarity.
In other words, different voicings have various practical and aesthetic qualities that make each useful in a particular musical situation.
Why Focus On Chord Voicings?
image source: Wikimedia Commons
You might be thinking, “I already know how to play a bunch of chords! Why do chord voicings matter? Aren’t there other things I should focus on?” Here’s an analogy to help explain why learning various chord voicings matters.
Let’s say that musical notes are like oil paints, and you, as a musician, are like a painter. Using stock chord voicings is like using basic painting techniques to paint your masterpiece. Basic painting techniques work, and you certainly can accomplish what you need with them. However…
If you want your masterpiece to stand out, you’ll need to use various techniques in your painting to make it distinct. You can make your masterpiece unique by getting creative with your oil paints.
Different chord voicings are like different painting techniques—different techniques allow you to express the paint (or the notes) differently, leading to a unique and enriched artistic experience.
Mastering different voicings helps you express the same kinds of ideas—let’s say major seventh chords—in a bunch of unique ways that help you become a more articulate and expressive musician.
Different Musical Situations Call For Different Chord Voicings
If you used the same chord voicings for every musical situation, you wouldn’t be playing what the music required; you’d be playing what you know and hoping for the best. Let’s say you are a guitarist and only know massive five- and six-string chord voicings.
You were called to play on a gig with a piano player, a vibraphonist, and a full horn section. That’s a lot of potential for clashing right there! If you were to start playing your massing block chord voicings on this gig, you’d likely be cluttering up the musical space and stepping on the toes of the other players.
This musical situation calls for restraint and smaller chord voicings—perhaps guide tones or shell voicings. If you only knew large, rich chord voicings, you wouldn’t be able to meet the needs of the musical situation. Instead of playing what the music requires, you’d be playing what you know.
Hopefully, this example illustrates how knowing different chord voicings isn’t just a cool parlor trick; it has practical value! You won’t get far if you try to build a house with only a hammer. Likewise, if you bring the same types of chords to every musical situation, you’ll likely clash with what the music needs.
10 Types of Chord Voicings You Need To Know
Let’s learn about 10 different chord voicing types you should know if you want to be the best jazz chord player you can be. We’ll provide examples on piano and guitar so we don’t leave any chord player out! We’ll start with the basics and then progress into more advanced territory.
Even if you aren’t a chord player, you should know these chord voicings because they are valuable tools when writing and arranging. Also, studying unique chord voicings can help you craft more interesting lines when improvising!
Before jumping into different types of voicings, I want to clarify a few things.
- The following voicing types aren’t exclusive—there can be overlap. For example, you can have close-position slash chords or open-position rootless voicings.
- Likewise, certain types of voicings imply other types. For example, drop 2 voicings must also be open position or spread voicings based on the definition (as you’ll soon see).
With that out of the way, let’s dig into 10 types of chord voicings you need to know!
1. Close-Position Voicings
Close-position chords have the notes of the chords arranged as closely as possible within an octave. Also, each note is within a third of the other. Often, when you see examples of chords on the staff, you’ll see them in close position.
The image above shows a Cmaj7 chord taken through its inversions. All of these inversions are in close position, as the notes are within a third of each other, and the whole span of the chord from lowest to highest note is within an octave.
Close position voicings are basic starter voicings on piano. They are functional yet sound somewhat dense and cluttered. They are helpful when piano players play in an ensemble and must stick to a particular range.
These voicings work well on piano but don’t transfer well to the guitar!
Though we can play a close root position Cmaj7 chord on the guitar, things get tricky when we try to play the inversions of this chord.
That’s a lot of stretch! The close root position major seventh chord worked on guitar, but other close root position chord qualities are less practical. Though some of the close root position voicings below are possible to play, they are highly impractical.
Guitarists are likelier to use the next chord voicing type—spread or open-position voicings.
2. Spread Voicings (Open-Position Voicings)
Spread voicings, which are also known as open-position voicings, have chord tones spaced apart by intervals larger than a third. Often, these chords span beyond an octave, especially on guitar. The most common jazz guitar chord voicings are open-position chords.
However, piano players also make great use of spread voicings. Because the notes are further apart in spread voicings, it’s easier for musicians to create strong voices leading from chord to chord. These are more open-sounding chords than other voicings like close position or cluster chord voicings.
You’ll notice that many of the following voicings we’ll discuss will technically qualify as open-position chords or spread voicings. Remember what I mentioned earlier—certain voicing types imply other types.
2. Shell Voicings
Shell voicings are minimalist voicings that usually contain only three notes—the root note, the third, and the seventh. These are the most fundamental tones that reveal a chord’s quality, also known as guide tones.
- The root note gives you the foundation of the chord
- The 3rd tells you whether it’s major or minor
- The 7th tells you whether a major chord is a dominant or maj7
The guide tones are essential when moving from one chord to another in common chord progressions like the ii-V-I. They move in a way that guides the harmony along from one chord to the next.
The 3rd of the D-7 chord (F) stays the same pitch but becomes the 7th of the G7 Chord. As we move from G7 to Cmaj7, the F moves down a half step to E and is now the 3rd of Cmaj7.
The 7th of the D-7 chord (C) moves down a half step to become the 3rd of the G7 chord (B). As the G7 resolves to Cmaj7, the B stays the same and becomes the 7th of Cmaj7.
These voicings are helpful when you want to take a minimalist approach or when playing with many other instruments that take up much harmonic space.
3. Drop 2 Voicings
Drop two voicings are open-position voicings created by taking a close-position chord and dropping the second-highest voice down an octave. Compared to close-position chords, this creates a more open and modern sound.
If we compare a chord scale made of close-position chords to a chord scale made of drop 2 voicings, we notice a few things right off the bat.
- Playing a close-position chord scale on guitar is not practical at all.
- Drop 2 voicings work really well on guitar!
Listen to how much more open and modern the drop 2 voicings sound than open-position chords.
Close Position Chord Scale:
Drop 2 Chord Scale:
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4. Drop 3 Voicings
Drop three voicings are similar to Drop 2, but the third-highest voice is dropped down an octave, giving the chord a more spread-out feeling. These voicings work well on guitar! Compare a close root position chord scale to a Drop 3 voicing chord scale.
Close Position Chord Scale:
Drop 3 Chord Scale:
5. Rootless Voicings
Rootless voicings omit the root note, leaving the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and upper chord tones (9ths, 11ths, 13ths) to create the upper portion of the harmonic structure. When playing with a bass player, the root note is redundant.
Any kind of chord can be a rootless chord! Like in the image above, you can have a rootless close-position chord or a rootless open-position chord. The only qualification is that the root is not present.
Omitting the root note when someone else can cover it can help free up sonic space and save a finger for chord extensions beyond the octave. If you are playing with a bass player, you can play other 7th chords from the key to hit different chord tones and extensions.
The bass has the root, so you are free to experiment! Here is an E-7 chord played over a C root. It contains all the chord tones of a Cmaj7 plus the 9th.
6. Quartal Voicings
All the other chord voicings we’ve explored were based on tertiary harmony. Tertiary harmony is based on thirds. Basic chord theory says you get chords when you stack thirds on top of one another. But what happens if we build chords on a different musical interval?
Quartal voicings occur when chords are built from stacked fourths instead of thirds. Chords built out of fourths create a modern, spacious, ambiguous sound often associated with modal jazz.
Let’s look at a chord scale harmonized with quartal voicings. In the key of C major, when you stack fourths on a C, you get the root note (C), the 4th (F), the 7th (B), and the 3rd (E). You essentially have an open-sounding Cmaj7 voicing that replaces the 5th with the 4th.
Follow this process for all the notes in the C major scale, and you will get quartal voicings that you can use to replace the standard tertiary harmony.
Check out this article for more on quartal harmony.
7. Polychords or Upper Structure Voicings
Polychords are complex voicings in which a simpler chord (often a triad) is placed over another chord to create rich, colorful harmonic textures. Polychords are frequently used over dominant chords because you can play a triad over top of a dominant chord and hit a bunch of altered extensions!
Let’s see what we get when we impose different triads over a G7 chord.
- An Ab triad played over G7 gives us an Ab (b9), a C (sus4), and an Eb (b13).
- An A triad played over a G7 gives us an A (9), a C# (#11), and an E (13).
- A Bb triad played over a G7 gives us a Bb (#9), a D (5), and an F (7).
- A B triad plated over a G7 gives us a B (3), a D# (#5), and an F# (M7).
Typically, a major seventh interval over a dominant chord doesn’t work, but in the context of the ascending voices, we can consider this F# a transitory chromatic passing tone.
Guitarists can’t physically play large, complex, 8 to 10-note polychords because they don’t have that many strings or fingers! The larger, more lush polychords are more common on piano. Guitarists can play some polychords, but they have to get creative with what they keep and omit.
However, guitarists can play the following type of voicing: slash chords, which can be considered a type of polychord or upper structure voicing, depending on the notes chosen.
8. Slash Chord Voicings
A slash chord is a broader term that refers simply to one chord played over a bass note. The bass note can be a chord tone, but it doesn’t have to be. Slash chords don’t always imply tension or jazz-specific harmony; sometimes, they’re just inversions or a simple reharmonization.
Polychords are a more complex type of slash chord. Guitarists can capture some of the incredible possibilities of polychords by omitting some notes and opting for slash chords instead.
In the example above, we have two slash chords. The first example is a G/B slash chord, which is simply a first inversion G major chord [B-D-G-B]. The second slash chord is an Ab over G chord, which implies a G7b9 dominant chord.
10. Cluster Voicings
Chord clusters are chord voicings incorporating two or more adjacent notes within the chord structure. The clustered notes can be either a half step or a whole step apart.
In our first example above, the Fmaj7 chord has a cluster between E and F. In our second example, the cluster is between F# and G.
How To Practice Chord Voicings (3 Tips)
image source: Wikimedia Commons
Here are three ways you can incorporate cluster chords into your jazz playing!
1. Understand the Theory (Know What’s Happening)
It helps to know what you are working with! Understand how each chord voicing type (drop 2, shell, upper structures, etc.) is constructed and why one voicing might suit certain musical situations and be inappropriate for others.
Write each chord clearly, noting chord tones, intervals, and tensions.
2. Play These Voicings in All Keys (In Time)
Practice these voicings in all 12 keys! For guitarists, it’s a matter of moving shapes around different string groups over the fretboard. Piano players have more shapes to worry about in this regard! Also, it’s a general rule of thumb to practice in time, even in situations like this!
Check out this article if you want a deep dive into two-hand piano voicings.
3. Apply to Jazz Standards and Commons Chord Progressions (In Time)
Pick jazz standards and play through them using each voicing type. Like before, you should do this in time—either with a metronome or backing track, or, better yet, with other musicians!
Check out this list of 50 jazz standards if you need some inspiration! Check out this article for more on jazz chords! Also, dive into this article for more on seventh chords specifically.
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