I've been trying to learn more complex keyboard voicings lately. I understand that the 3rd and 7th, 9th, etc. are better indicators of the flavor of a chord than the root and fifth...but after years of playing major and minor chords to the point where it's automatic in most inversions, it seems impossible to get to the point where I can play more complex chords as quickly. (Not to mention that this stuff isn't needed in most pop music, so it's hard for me to stay focused on this goal.)

I have many jazz books, from Levine's jazz piano book to Jamie Aebersold's stuff, etc. My reading is...not good.

I guess my question here is, for those of you who dig jazz, what's a good first step toward gaining a grasp of this?

Thanks in advance.

Practice. Sorry.

I found that learning one or two songs really well, inside and out, transposed in all 12 keys helped me develop facility with jazz voicing a lot more than learning a bunch of songs at a casual acquaintanceship level.

And yeah, practice with hands on the keyboard is absolutely essential. It sounds like you've got some good books to read about voicing chords on the piano, now you need to put them into practice in the context of some pieces.

one commom approach is to pratcise the II-V-I progression in all keys, by the cycle of fifths. Requires a lot of discipline.

there are a few books that have clever 'elegant' fingerings for ii V I and other common progressions that I found useful when I was into this to get thinking like
this.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Jamey-Aebersold-Jazz-Keyboard-Ha rmony-Book-and-CD-906684-i1368460.gc

That book was really useful to me, exercises in all keys and what?!? if I recall some sort of tab for piano as well as standard notation -- because after all 'arranger's'/producers are playing chord symbols not necessarily notation. Ok it's probably the greatest jazz keyboard cheat book ever. If you work with it you can cover a lot of ground very quickly. Impress your friends -- no longer a need to feel sheepish trying out baby grands at the local piano warehouse. very basic very useful stuff.

as I came very late to this party any leg up was much appreciated.

One thing I also found useful with my rudimentary skills was to just play root or root 5 or root 3 in the left hand and learn to start a chord on the 3 or 5 or ? in the right hand. It then becomes very natural to reach 7's and 9's and sneak in 11's. and one gets used to the sound really quickly.
Then it's a matter of voice leading and keeping the transitions smooth.

get ahold of a book of transcribed Bill Evans pieces. Much will be revealed.

for general purposes [eg., of reharmonization], you'll find that economy of movement is a key principle. so the remarks per fingering, and the Aebersold kind of methodology is really pretty apt.

one factor is, how much are you doing with the left hand, is there a bass player providing, how much of the harmony. so what is the context? it isn't one size fits all.

bill evans is a great guy to get into because he harmonizes whole modes rather than just playing stock chord forms. absolutely deep end stuff to get into (i.e. it's not easy to copy at first), but the sooner you realize that a chord is just a selection of notes and voice leading principles from a key rather than a fixed shape you make with your hands, the faster you'll get into doing something really new.

yes.

'for general purposes' the reason for a voicing is voice-leading.

I isolated 're-harmonization' there, indicating you're supporting a tune with normative kind of harmony etc; as there are other approaches, other reasoning for the way a chord form is *spread*, such as the sonority is desirable per se. you could have the goal of totally un-smooth voicings, more outside ideas, percussive use of sonority or all kinds of things.

if you're going to approach from a 'ii-V is desired for any target' idea, which is the typical jazz re-harm idea, one thing that typifies 'jazz voicings' is that so often a perfect fifth is left out; the essential part of the chord [beyond obvious root movement] is third and seventh.

notice this (I'm going to 'flat five substitute' the Vs in a) progression that proceeds down by whole tones:



the iis have an eleventh and the '♭II's have the sharp eleventh (the same as the previous tone). the 7ths are handled LH; the 3rds, 11ths RH. this is pure economy.

edit: I should elucidate the concept. what I meant w. 'down by whole tones': the 'normal' progression being altered is Am7 D7 | Gm7 C7 | F^7.
the alteration of 'V' turns that into the chromatic.

The D of the D7 is the #11 of its ♭V sub Ab7 (aka D7♭5); so a neat trick is that 11th of the ii7 type suspended to become the #11.
Last edited by jancivil on Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:25 pm; edited 1 time in total

realizinhg I actually know more about this that I thought

one good exercise is to set up on a jazz standard like Autumn Leaves or All he Things You Are. It doesn't have to be the whole song, just 4 bars at a time is revealing.
If you work up a nice voice leading implementation -- which is mostly about minimal and efficient movement of fingers (except the left pinkie if playing the root is exempt -- it can jump as much as needed)) but the right hand should take advantage of inversions and such and maintain a 'home' position.

Then work up the same 4 bar progression in the right hand starting from a different inversion or open vs closed spacing. This little exercise was very useful to me. It's all such interrelated elements -- if you don't care to be jumping all over the keyboard like a barre chord guitarist, it's a beautiful thing.

Just want to say thanks to all of you. I'm trying to absorb this. The time some of you have taken in crafting your responses is much appreciated.

The point about not wanting to just do standard ii-V-I stuff is well taken. One of my first influences was Dave Stewart of Bruford fame. I have both of his books about theory. He is very opposed to just doing what has been done before.

And yes, I've always loved Bill Evans. Vince Guaraldi as well. I'm hardly schooled on the great jazz pianists, but these guys spoke to me right away.

Can't wait for the chance to try these suggestions out!

Jan and Jopy have great responses up there.

I'll add...

Band in a box.... I know I mention it way way too much. But between the re harmonization and the advanced harmony tool for block chords you can't lose/

another thing to look at is quartal voicings, once you get into such extensions.



that can get you into quartal qua quartal. One thing I found I dug a lot was mixed fourths with a major third cherry on top...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_What_chord

search for So What voicings

what specifically about band in a box is good? i've heard great things about it for keybaordists over the years, but just wondering what i should look out for inside.