INTRODUCTION TO CHORD VOICINGS

The responses to my thread, subject, “Chord Instruction/Discussions”. April 11th 2003, indicated a genuine interest in learning more about the music we play. This is my introduction to chord voicings. It is my hope that others will contribute to the material presented here as well as correcting errors I may make. Those who have specific questions can fire away and I will do my best to provide accurate answers. Please bear in mind I am not a music major or a playing professional, just a home hobbyist like most of you. This initial offering will be a little lengthy out of necessity because we need to get some preliminaries out of the way.

I will endeavor to ensure the material I present is practical knowledge you can have fun experimenting with and apply to your playing immediately, as opposed to some abstract theoretical stuff that bores you to tears. Play with this stuff. Hear the sounds. Enjoy them.

Special Note: Bandwidth limitations must be taken into consideration. Since this is a rather lengthy presentation, I am initiating a companion topic (thread), subject, “Chord Voicing Comments”. PLEASE USE THAT THREAD FOR YOUR COMMENTS RATHER THAN ADDING THEM AT THE END OF THIS PRESENTATION. Thank you.

Before we get to the chords we need to define some terms we will be using throughout this discussion. You don’t need to memorize them. They are provided so you can refer to them as needed. The terms are:

HARMONY    Sounds in combination.
CHORD    Two or more notes sounded together.
ROOT    The note from which a chord is derived, and from which it takes its name.
DIATONIC    Consisting of notes according to the key signature.
CHROMATIC    Consisting of notes foreign to the key signature.	
DEGREE NAMES    1st degree, Tonic (I); 2nd, Supertonic (II); 3rd, Mediant (III)
                                   4th, Subdominant (IV); 5th, Dominant (V); 6th, Submediant (VI)
                                   7th, Leading-note (VII); 8th, Tonic (VIII).
ENHARMONIC    Intervals smaller than a semi-tone (half tone). Examples: C# and      
                               Db; G# and Ab. The sound is the same but the note name differs.
INTERVAL    The distance between two notes. Examples: an interval of a second is     
                        C to D; an interval of a third is C to E; an interval of a fourth is C to F.
                        An interval of a thirteenth is C to A (an octave above the sixth). It is
                         normally the largest interval employed in music.
AUGMENT    Raise a note by a semi-tone
DIMINISH    Lower a note by a semi-tone.

All chord voicings will be given in their root form and in C major. You will need to set your keyboard to PIANIST MODE (with preferably a piano sound in Right 1) to play and explore these chords. Ensure Techni-chord is turned “OFF”. Our keyboards have 61 notes ranging from C1 at the extreme left to C6 at the exteme right. The first octave is C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, A1, B1; the second octave is C2, D2, E2 and so on up the keyboard to C6. These note designations will be used in this presentation when I cite the notes to play to form a particular chord.

We will be using both hands to play the chord examples. There are many ways to voice chords. This discussion will be limited to 3rd, 5th, and 7th intervals with the left hand and anything up to an 8th interval with the right hand. At the end I will harmonize four bars of the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” using the chord formation principles in this presentation to give you some idea of what YOU can do on your own if you wish.

Lets get started. It is important you LISTEN to these sounds to acquire an appreciation of how note changes affect the overall sound of the FUNDAMENTAL chord. First, lets look at a plain vanilla C major chord played in several ways. No frills or fancy sounds here.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: E3, G3, C4
                   (1) (3)                         (3)  (5)  (1)

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: E3, G3, C4
(1)	(5)

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: G3, C4, E4
                                                      (5)  (1)   (3)

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: G3, C4, E4

Take note of the difference in the sound of the first example and the third example when we changed the right hand voicing from 3-5-1 to 5-1-3. Hearing these differences in tonality is important. 

Now look at a Cmajor7 chord. We will be using a popular voicing commonly called  “3-7-3 voicing” in the right hand.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: E3, B3, E4
                                                      (3)  (7)  (3)                                                                                             

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: same as above

Left Hand: C2, B2    Right Hand: same as above
(1)	(7)                                                                                                                                        

Hear how the sound of the chord is affected as we play the same notes in the right hand while changing the notes in the left hand? This is an excellent example of what chord “voicing” is all about.

Now, lets change the Cmajor7 chord to a Cminor7 chord.

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: Eb3, Bb3, Eb4

We simply lowered each note in the right hand a semi-tone from the notes we played to form the major 7th chord and Presto!, a minor 7th chord. Now play both chords, alternating  between E-B-E  and Eb-Bb-Eb and hear the difference.

Lets add a ninth (9th) to the Cmajor7 chord to form Cmajor9.

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: E3, B3, D4
                                                       (3)  (7)  (9)                                                                                    

Now make that chord a Cminor9.

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: Eb3, Bb3, D4

We simply lowered the E and B notes a semi-tone as we did with the Cminor7 chord while retaining the 9th (D).

Dominant 7th chords are next on our chord agenda. You have seen the chord symbols G7, C7 etc. They have a unique sound. Dominant chords can be “altered” to give our music that “jazzy” sound we all like to hear. Chord symbols C7b5, C7#5, C7b5b9, C9#11 appear frequently on the lead sheets we play from. Lets do a little exploring to see how these chords are formed. The Cdominant7 or C7 chord consists of the root (C), the third (E), the fifth (G), and the seventh (B) lowered a semi-tone to Bb.

Important! Pay no attention to the chord recognition symbols appearing on your keyboard screen because the notes we will be playing will often be misinterpreted by the keyboard. It will display a chord symbol that is partially or wholly incorrect at times.

First, the plain vanilla Cdominant7 or C7 chord.

Left Hand: C2, G2    Right Hand: Bb2, E3
                  (1)  (5)                          (b7)  (3)                                                                                            

Note that the fifth (G) is in the left hand and the third (E) is in the right hand. 

Same chord, but change the voicing.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, G3

We reversed the third and fifth and the tonality of the chord changes dramatically.

Now, lets add the ninth note (D) to form the C9 (or Cadd9) chord.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: G2, Bb2, D3

Same chord but change the voicing.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, D3, G3

Nice sound isn’t it! Want to voice a C7b9 chord? Easy! Just lower the D note a semi-tone.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, Db3, G3

Want to voice a C7#9 chord? Simply raise the D note a semi-tone.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, D#3, G3

Want to voice a C7#11 chord. Raise (augment) the eleventh note of the scale (F) a semi-tone.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, D3, F#3

Want to voice a C7b9#11 chord? Easy! Retain the augmented 11th (F#) and lower (diminish) the 9th note (D) to Db3.

Left Hand: C2, E2    Right Hand: Bb2, Db3, F#3

Want to voice a C13 chord? Good! But lets change one of the left hand notes. Instead of playing E, lets play Bb. And lets play four notes with the right hand. This is a “closed” or “block” voicing or sound because of the closeness of the notes D, E, G, and A in the right hand.

Left Hand: C2, Bb2    Right Hand: D3, E3, G3, A3

Now lets change the voice (sound) of the C13 chord by opening it up a little i.e., putting some separation between the notes and playing three notes in the right hand instead of four. Same chord – different voice.

Left Hand: C2, Bb2    Right Hand: E3, A3, D4

Pretty isn’t it? How many times have you heard that sound in your music?

Want to voice a C13b9 chord? You know the answer by now. Just lower the D note a semi-tone. 

Left Hand: C2 Bb2    Right Hand: E3, A3, Db4

It isn’t often you will see a C13 chord with an augmented 9th or 11th unless the composer feels it necessary to harmonize a particular melody note.

And finally, I promised I would include a few bars of the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” using the altered chords we have been discussing. I think you will find the chord voicings pleasant to the ear. Since I don’t have a staff on which to write the notes, I’ll have to improvise a little. Sorry about that. I’ll show you the notes to play in each hand. They will appear vertically. I don’t know how else to do it. Each syllable of a word represents a quarter note (one beat). There are two words, “star” and “are” which are held for two beats so play accordingly. I don’t know how else to do that except to explain it. Can’t show it in note form. The letter “R” denotes notes to be played by the right hand and “L” the notes for the left hand. Analyze and enjoy the jazzy sound of this toddlers song.

    Twin  kle  Twin  kle   lit    tle   star.  How    I      won  der  where  you  are.

R   C4    C4    G4    G4   A4   A4   D4    F4     F4     E4    E4      D4    D4   C4
     A3    A3    D4    D4    E4   E4   G3    C#4   C#4   B3   B3      B3    A3   A3
     G3    G3    Bb3  Bb3   A3  A3   D3   G#3   G#3   G3   G3      F#3   F3   G3
     E3                                                                                                              E3

L   G2    G2    E2    E2     C3  C3   B2     D3     D3   C#3  C#3    C3    B2    G2
     C2     C2    C2   C2     F2   F2   E2     E2      E2     A2    A2     D2   G2    C2

The chord names are:

Twinkle     Cmajor6 or C6
Twinkle     C7add9 or C9
Little          Fmajor7
Star            Eminor7
How I         E13b9
Wonder      A7add9 or A9
Where        D13
You            G13
Are             Cmajor6 or C6

I hope I haven’t confused anyone. It is not easy to present information such as this in a format that is simple and evident when using a computer in a word processing mode. Hopefully you will be able to follow the material presented and benefit from it. Use this information to do some experimenting on your own. Its fun. You will be surprised at the sounds you can create. PLEASE REMEMBER TO USE THE COMPANION THREAD FOR ANY COMMENTS. Thanks a lot. 

Best Regards to All My Forum Friends,

Chuck Piper.