More Isn't Necessarily Better...

Some jazz pianists get caught up in the mentality that the more notes in a voicing the better.  We do our best to cram all the 9s, 11s, 13ths as we have fingers for in every chord we play.  If done correctly, those thick  chords with lots of tensions can have a great sound.  However, more isn't necessarily always better. Less dense voicings have a great sound too, plus we don't have to exhaust all of our mental energy playing them We can focus on what really counts 1) Playing the melody 2)  playing with the a good rhythmic feel 3)  and improvising in a meaningful way.  Tons of great pianists, including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans, utilized two-note voicings.  

Two-Note Shell Voicings

Some of my favorite chords to use in my left hand, especially in a solo piano context are shell voicings that contain only two (yes I said TWO!) notes.  Those notes will be:

1) Root + 7      2) Root + 3     or     3) Root + 6

I decide which of these three combinations to play based on where the voicings will lay on the piano.  I don't want it to be too high (interferes with the melody) or too low (gets too muddy).  I'll also think about voice leading too.  For example, If you play a Root + 7 for a ii7 chord, a Root + 3 will work nicely for a V7 chord.  

And a last plug for how great these voicings are, when you are first learning a tune, you don't want to have to think too hard about complex voicings.  You just want the essentials (Root, third, seventh, melody note).  Once you get get the hang of the shell voicings on a particular tune, they leave lots of room to add other voices if that's your thing.  


All The Things You Are

The best way to learn a new concept (in this case, two-note left hand voices) is to apply it to tunes.  A great one to try for this concept is Jerome Kern's All the Things You Are.  It has a lot of changes (just about one per measure!) and there is not a lot of repetition.  In the following video tutorials and sheet music, I take you through ATTYA using this concept.  

Can you come up with different shell voicings to use over this tune?  What about applying the concept to other songs?  

Happy Shedding!


Video Tutorial Part 1

Video Tutorial Part 2

Sheet Music

Several years back, some old college friends of mine asked if I wanted to play in a roots/reggae cover band.  Of course, I happily agreed.  What's better than playing feel-good music with old friends?   While I was excited to play music for the pure fun of it, I also looked at the new experience as an opportunity to learn something, to expand my horizons as a keyboard player.  I had dabbled in reggae here and there, but never took the time and effort to really study it.  Early on in checking out this new style, I made a discovery that completely changed how I played reggae keyboard.  The discovery was a technique called "The Bubble."  

The key to the bubble is, of course, the rhythm.  The right hand plays predictably on beats two and four (think of the classic reggae-guitar "chick - chick").  The spiciness is in the left hand, which plays all up-beats (or the "ands").  You'll mostly hear the bubble played on organ, but it also sounds great on piano as well as a Rhodes or Wurly patch.     

Once I started using The Bubble in reggae music, I found it extremely useful in other styles as well, including funk, jazz, and Afro-Cuban music.   I noticed master jazz pianists like Herbie Hancock and Danilo Perez playing similar types of rhythms when they were comping.

Check out the video tutorial below, it's a technique much more easily demonstrated than written-out. 

And last, it's only appropriate to end with my favorite Bob Marley lyric:  "One good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain." 

Happy Shedding!
  

I know it's a lot to declare something your absolute "favorite" but I must say if someone asked me right now what my favorite chord voicing on the piano is, I wouldn't hesitate.  It's the minor 11 voicing I'm about to teach you.  Sure, ask me in a couple of years, I'll probably have moved on.  But ever since I heard this voicing I can't get enough!

For those who can't wait to hear and see the specific chord I'm talking about and learn how to play it, check out the video below.   For those who don't want a fish but want to be taught how to fish, let's talk some theory.  

At it's basics a minor 11 chord contains the notes of a minor 7 chord with some tensions added on.  So if we are thinking in terms of a major scale, the 4 notes of a plain old minor 7 chord are the root (1), b3, 5, b7.  For a Cminor7 chord that would be C, Eb, G, Bb.  That covers the plain parts of the chord, but things start to get spicy when we add what are called chord tensions, typically the 9, 11, and 13.  This chord uses the 9th and 11th and leaves out the 13th.  If we are still talking Cminor7 that would be a D and an F.   (Note:  Remember 9th, 11th and 13th are just a fancy way of saying the 2nd, 4th, 6th, but that's for another article)

So here are the notes that make up our minor 11 chord:  Root b3, 5, b7, 9, & 11, OR in C -- C, Eb, G, Bb, D, and F.

Notes are one thing, those are just the building blocks of the chord.  Where it really starts to get interesting is the voicings, that is, the arrangement or order in which we play those notes.  

In our left hand we play the Root, 5th, and 9th.  This makes two stacked perfect fifths, a nice open sound.  In the right hand, we play the b3, b7, and the 11.  Guess what?  Two more stacked perfect fifths.  But here's where it gets juicy, when we put our hands together we get an interval between the top note of the left hand and the bottom note of the right hand -- a super crunchy minor 2nd.  So we have a bunch of open sounding fifths and to contrast it we have the bite of the dissonant minor second.  Now that's my kinda voicing.  Check it out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.  

Happy Shedding!