Jazz pianist (or serious dabbler)? Share some of your fav rootless voicings.

[arbogast]

When gigging or jamming, it's the context that calls for specific voicings, of course.

Still, I suspect a lot jazz pianists have some favourite and/or go to voicings. So, all in the name of good natured musician's banter.

suggestion (but do as you please, by all means):
Write lowest to highest note intervals, comma separated. Use an '*' between L & R hand.
example V7 chord: b7,3,13 * 9,5,1
If the same interval is written twice (or more), an octave doubling's presumed. f.ex. 1,5,1 * 5,1,5

Here's a cpl of mine:

Imaj7 (yeah I know, not-rootless bunch of thirds. But it's nice, simple - 2 major triads):
1,3,5 * 7,#9,#11

IIm7b5: (pretty basic)
4,b5 * b7,9,4

V7: (cheap percussive effect)
b7,b9,3,5 * #11,13,1,#9

more to follow. Looking forward to seeing some of your voicings

[warrior545]

I like the phrygian chord voicing :
Emb9 - F A B E

very dissonance chord but great when you want to create a dark atmosphere.

[arbogast]

Nice.
Don't know why, but it reminded me of on I've overused on several occasions:

V7: (sort of a minimalist voicing)
1,b9,3,5

like many other 13,b9 voicings it's nice to move up'n'down in b3 intervals.

[psenior]

Over time, I have compiled a list of jazz piano chord voicings. The list is pretty big now and continues to grow as I find/borrow/steal things I hear and like. I think everybody ends up with a list of their own like this, eventually.

In a nutshell, the left hand typically will have some combination of root, 7th and 10th. The right hand will usually have a triad or chord. I used to prefer playing complex chords in the right hand but it wasn't the sound I really wanted. I later learned how to use simple triads and chords to get a sophisticated sound.

Now, I usually work on playing chord movements through the scale and don't focus so much on memorizing voicings. I just try to use my ears in whatever setting I'm in to tell me what's appropriate at any given time. But my memorized voicings do usually serve as a starting point as I attempt to make the leap into playing things I've never really played before.

All the chords listed above are nice, but I wouldn't necessarily play them as chords in the context in which they are given. I would play them as melodies or arpeggios over the original, simpler chords. I'd figure out what scales contain the complex voicing notes and move it through each one. This is usually how I end up discovering more chord voicings to add to my list.

This whole process is very time consuming and I wish my programming skills were better so I could just have the computer solve this problem for me. But that would be spoiling all the fun.

Enough of my general opinion on this topic; it's time to share the specifics.

Over a major 7th chord, I usually play a major 6th on the 5th. I.E. for Cmaj7 I play G6. Pretty boring, right? If you want to sound a little hipper, a good major chord to end a song on would be something like D6 over Cmaj7. It sounds very impressionistic.

The concept of playing a "6th on the 5th" comes from Barry Harris. He says you can do the same thing on a dominant chord. For example, you can play Gm6 over C7.

I also discovered you can kind of apply this concept to minor chords. What I have seen Barry do is play a Gadd9 (2-3-5-1) over a Cm (1-10), which gives you a Cm69 with a major 7th. This is a very pretty chord that I have been playing a lot lately.

[arbogast]

Good post. I largely agree with your general opinions & readily admit that a list of, more or less, arbitrarily selected voicings is a bit silly. Still this is mainly for fun. Some genres/gigs/situations call for a specific approach to voicings, though. In addition some situations call for a safe approach for some of us.
I also tend to use an upper structure like approach

Maybe the threads subject should be expanded to comping-tricks (?)

One of my goto melodic minors (almost the same as your Barry Harris example - great player, btw):

Im:
2,b3 * 5,7,9
or
2,b3 * 4,13,9

As I'm becoming more and more rusty, technique- and chopwise (work & family), I often rely on this cheap trick, which leaves me with enough overview to focus on playing rhythmically tight:
basic chord voicings in LH & one note in RH

[psenior]

arbogast, I see you are in Scandinavia. Do you ever listen to Franz Elsen? He is from Holland (not too far from you) and is a good friend of Barry's. He has taken some of Barry's concepts and expanded upon them rather nicely.

Like you, I do wish there was more educational material on comping effectively.

Lately I have been playing more triad-based voicings, since Barry says small chords are easier to grab. One uncommon voicing I have been working with is the major b5 triad. I have found that, for example, a C(b5) triad can be found in D9, A7#5, Cmaj7b5, or F#m7b5. So, I have been using it for these types of chords instead of what I would typically play.

[arbogast]

Franz Elsen. Don't know him, yet. But will def check. Thanks!

Also, the triad you mention for E7, Ab7, Bb7. Depending on context I'd probably find it hard not to play third & seventh in LH.