F blues piano voicings pdf

This blues note is our attempt at playing a note that doesnt exactly fit into western tonality. An approach borrowed from jazz arranging is to drop the 2nd voice from the top down an octave, to create an open voicing that is readily playable on the guitar. This handout is the second in a twopart series of reference voicings for the jazz pianist. Can you play any triad in any inversion in all twelve keys. Basic blues in f jazz style for piano using rootless. Introduction to jazz guitar chords and comping styles. Common jazz guitar chords if you are somewhat new to jazz guitar chords, here are some of the most commonly used voicings. F jazz blues comping jazz chords and concepts jens larsen. Right hand can play single notes, octaves, triad shapes, upper extensions, or single line solos over the top. Bill evans, barry harris, oscar peterson, kenny barron. Now well let the bass player do the walking, which will free up our hands to play bigger, bolder chord voicings and more varied rhythms. Until today we learned here on piano play it to play the chords on right hand and the bass in the left hand. Figure 1 has us comping on a 12bar jazzblues progression in the key of g, using fournote voicings on the top four strings exclusively, except for the final chord. The voicings are typically comprised of 4 notes, usually excluding the root.

Glowing endorsements from pat metheny, mike stern, ben monder and others. Mar 21, 2016 twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists. Although pianists and arrangers are free to use their own voicings and by doing so. They can easily be moved throughout the neck of the guitar by lining up the root with another desired note. Threenote voicings and beyond by randy vincent sher music co. Two handed voicings are used when other players solo and during. Learn to play rootless chord voicings play blues piano. The file extension pdf and ranks to the documents category. Jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in. If youre playing an f blues, use the f blues scale, etc. These lefthand voicings were largely pioneered in the 1950s by jazz pianists such as bill evans. Closed voicings where all the chordtones are within an octave can be tricky to play on the guitar. Since i am using a twelve bar blues in f as an example it might be good to just have that chord progression. Take these voicings and then go over how you can use the chords to make more voicings that are easier to play melodies with.

Blues in bb piano part sheet music for piano download. These chords are all shown with a c root found on the 5th or 6th string. This is good news because you dont need to know a lot of theory or a ton. This book takes many of the ideas i put forward in how to speed read piano chord symbols and its sequel and expands on them, offering the aspiring pianist more in depth study on these famous and beautiful patterns. The 5th note and chord of the diatonic scale is known as the dominant and its. The jazz blues progression tutorial now that you have a good understanding of basic blues form, its time to enhance it to create the more interesting and sophisticated jazz blues progression. The basic ingredients in music are scales, chords, melody, rhythm, and harmony. Basic twonote guide tone voicings, containing only the 3rd and 7th of each chord. Notice that the only differences between these scales relate to alterations of the 3rd and 7th scale degrees, as all other degrees are common to all three scales. Blues voicings 47 major and dominant 7th voicings 48 iiv7i voicings 49 jameys points to remember 52 summer jazz workshops for information concerning the finest in jazz education write to summer jazz workshops, co the address.

Become a bettereducated singer, instrumentalist or teacher of jazz, with a thorough understanding of the music and the confidence that goes along with it. Here are various voicings of the g chord, both with and without the. Aug 15, 2015 rootless voicings will make your playing sound more professional. Plus, youll get practice playing through iivi voicings in all 12 keys and see the voiceleading qualities of these chords. In this handout, bert ligon shows many different possibilities. There are many different 12 bar blues forms though. The word voicings refers to the way in which a chord is spread out. These advanced jazz piano chord voicings will totally. Learn to play rootless chord voicings play blues piano with. The first set of voicings has the root on the bottom. Basic left hand voicings useful when playing with a bass player.

Dan haerle jazz rock voicings for the contemporary keyboard player. Now you are comfortable with the common voicings of these essential jazz guitar chord voicings, find as many ways as you can through the following chord progressions using the voicings discussed in this lesson. Prior to this, jazz pianists tended to use shell chords like the bud powell voicing we will learn in a future lesson or stride piano. How to play from a fake book without gettin the blues index of chapters chapter 1 g, am7 and d7 page 1. Rootless chord voicings are an essential aspect of jazz and blues playing and usually thought of as an advanced concept. Most blues chord progressions are 12 bars long, although there are also 8, 14, 16, 24 or more bar blues changes. Rootless left hand piano voicings earl macdonald composer. This means of course that there are only three possible sets of voicings. The top note of left hand voicings, played by the thumb, should be played within the register of middle c and c the octave above middle c. Jazz piano basics dan davey tensions are non chord tones that are added to a chord to change the colortexture of the chord.

How to use the pentatonic scale like mccoy tyner in your. Note that scale degrees 10 is the same as 3, 12 the same as 5, 14 the same as 7, and 15 the same as and root. We start by introducing a passing chord preceding f7. In addition to removing the 1, the 5th is often omitted, leaving the 3rd and the 7th. Basic blues in f jazz style for piano using rootless voicings. How to play from a fake book without gettin the blues. This book is my sixth piano book related to playing from fake books and improvising at. Each note is sometimes called a voice, especially when talking about the movement of the inner voices of a chord progression.

Chord voicings and voiceleading are the primary tools you need to play standard tunes choosing chord voicings so that the individual notes voices move as little as possible from lead sheets. We chose to do so since this gave us a clear idea on the basis of the chord and how everything relates to it. Jazz piano scales grades 15 blues d,c,f,dflat,e,fsharp,g abrsm. Example drop 2nd voice root inversion dropii g7 chord r,5,7,3. Threenote voicings and beyond is a thorough study of how to construct and use these crucial jazz guitar voicings. Encyclopedia of twohand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. In the key of f, it would be the b natural in the following example. This handout shows piano voicings for playing the blues in f and the blues in b flat. National jazz workshop a summer jazz camp at shenandoah. Blues jazz piano f solo only f blues scale by eric. Use the download button below or simple online reader. The book starts off by presenting all the voicings in each key.

One for d, f,ab and b, one for eb,gb,a and c and the last one for e,g,bb and db. This is an short encyclopedia with 12 voicings for most of the chords jazz pianists are likely to encounter. Basic onehand voicings created by adding color tones to the guide tones in the previous example. Begin by playing through each progression using chords all with roots on the same string. Mar 09, 2016 the really important thing is to learn how to play rootless chord voicings. Sample f blues chorus shown using basic left hand chords, octave right hand melody, typical comping rhythms. This example is played with a d in the bass, but it might as well have been a f,ab or b. Left hand voicings over c jazz blues learn piano online. Finallly i will go over how i might play a chorus with these more complex. Jazz guitar chord voicings fundamental changes music book. Left hand rootless voicings are closely associated with the piano style of pianist bill evans 19291980. Aebersold piano books notefornote piano voicings to accompany select jamey aebersold playalongs, plus titles addressing dexterity and piano voicing construction for learners of all levels. Rootless voicings are preferred in jazz piano and guitar playing, especially when playing with a bassist.

The newest jazz piano chords pdf that i recently made available features those piano chords and voicings that i used during an eight bar segment of a piano video tutorial i created which focuses on the classic harold arlen tune paper moon. The basic approach is to take the third and sixth voicings aka fourway close and drop the second from top tone down an octave. Rootless voicings will make your playing sound more professional. Threenote voicings and beyond by randy vincent sher. All of these are chord tones ct, and therefore, these are not tensions. Get ideas for voicings from books and from imitating music on disc. This book is my sixth piano book related to playing from fake books and improvising at the piano. In this handout, bert ligon shares some basic concepts of constructing good jazz bass lines. There are many, of course, and rather than being concerned with what you dont know in this area, it will serve you better to open your mind pun intended to looking at the chords. An arranging technique used when voicing for four horns. Piano chord voicings for jazz combo the pianist has a few functions in a jazz combo. In part 1 we introduced the basic minor blues form, how it differs from the standard 12 bar form, and how to play through the chords root.

The interval b to f is an augmented 4th tritone and the interval f to a is a diminished 4th major 3rd. Blues in f youtube two handed jazz piano voicings over a blues the piano shed duration. Why is the progression iim7 v7 so important in jazz. Lets look at the dominant 7th voicing in one other key. In the same way that we can build regular tertian diatonic chords by walking up a scale cmaj7, dm7, em7, etc. The blues scale, shown here in the key of f, is a simple five note scale.

Rootless chord voicings were developed in the 1950s by pianists like bill evans, wynton kelly and ahmad jamal. Twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists. Therefore, he needs two different types of voicings. Jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in their voicings most of the time. And today were going look at 3 creative ways mccoy tyner uses the pentatonic scale on the blues. Some people might add what is often referred to as the blues note. In this 5 minute masterclass, were going create a bass line over a blues in f. Use the general voicing guidelines from page 7, the left hand voicings reference sheet, and the following progression formulas to help. Step 3 figure out voicings for the 3 chords of the basic blues progression. This is an extract from chapter 7 of my ebook learn jazz piano book 1. Basic rootless piano voicings by chris fitzgerald ex. This book will allow you to explore some fundamental chord voicings. This creates a shell where extensions, alterations and other chord tones may be added. But the most challenging aspect of rootless chord voicings is simply the practice that they require.

The blues scale can also be used over minor chords when the minor chord is. Using chord inversions facilitates smooth connection of chords in a progression for symmetry, voice leading and linear harmony. C7b5 f7b5 tricks of the trade notice that this voicing is the same as the category a dominant voicing a raised 5th up. Notice that the only difference between the c7 and cmaj7 is that we replace the 6th a with a b7 bb. Free open chord voicings pdf as a cocktail piano player, you will absolutely benefit from making it a point to acquaint yourself with open chord voicings. The exercise below is an excellent way to get these chords under your fingers fast. The f7 chords are found by harmonizing an f mixolydian or bb major scale in 4ths. Blues in f piano part sheet music for piano download. To get started using these chords on a blues in f we need a set of voicings for each of the chords. Usually, we begin improvising on songs like blues in bb or f, satin doll, maiden voyage, or summertime. First, he comps for, and interacts with, other players as they solo. The following lessons introduce some of the basics of jazz guitar chords.

This book will allow you to explore some fundamental chordvoicings. Use the general voicing guidelines from page 7, the left hand voicings reference sheet, and the included blues sheets to help. Also analyse it what type of chord is it, what are the extensionsalterations, how is the chord voiced. You can approach it with blues language, bebop, or even modern and outside approaches it all comes together in the blues. Then, for each individual voicing, say a major chord voiced as 3569, theres a twopage exercise which does two measures of the voicing, just as a whole note, with a bass line under it which is 1585, and then repeat this in all twelve keys.

Piano sheet music in pdf format, classical, jazz, blues, standards, rock, pop, movie music, etc. The blues is a form that every improviser must learn and master if they want to become a proficient player. When you find something you like, try and play it in all keys. Free open chord voicings pdf learn to play cocktail piano. The tonic chord of a blues is a dominant 7 chord, a fact that doesnt fit very well in traditional music theory.

The jazz blues chord progression jazz blues progression in f. Walking bass lines are a fascinating part of jazz, as they support and mark the harmony underneath the chords and melody. For our purposes, all voicings built up from the 3rd will be referred to as type i voicings, and those built up from the 7th will be called type ii. Chordvoicings and voiceleading are the primary tools you need to play standard tunes choosing chordvoicings so that the individual notes voices move as little as possible from lead sheets. The blues for free content learn jazz piano online. Memorize these voicings and get used to playing them from seeing just the chord symbol and not the written notes themselves. Construction of drop ii voicings university of surrey blogs. Whilst the basic 12 bar blues just contains 3 chords, the i, the iv and the v, the jazz blues also incorporates the most common progression in jazz. Jazz educations purpose is to give you the basics you need in learning to play jazz or to improvise. This pdf serves as a compliment to a free lesson that i created emphasizing the rewards of smooth voice leading. Use jazz articulations on exercises and scalechord practice. Drop 2 voicings bebop, hard bop, contemporary jazz. Jazz guitar chord voicings fundamental changes music. Encyclopedia of lefthand jazz piano voicings learn jazz.