How are you using Drop 3 chords?

[Freddy23]

I've been using Drop 2 chords for awhile but only recently started working on Drop 3 chords. My motivation was to have inverted chord voicings to go with walking bass lines but I'm not really sure that's how they're generally used. Is there a "better" choice for comping along with your own walking bass lines?

Thanks.

[bako]

Drop 3 have more space between the bass note and the next one.
For instance CMa7 goes from C-B in drop 3 and C-G in drop 2.
Both are very useable for walking bass style.

Learning voicings in categories of drop spread is a decent way to organize study but I wouldn't want to limit my chord vocabulary in that way.
To learn walking bass style I would suggest studying playing bass lines separately and then begin to integrate chords, simplifying the bass lines as needed.

[jeffstritt]

Originally Posted by bako

Learning voicings in categories of drop spread is a decent way to organize study but I wouldn't want to limit my chord vocabulary in that way.
To learn walking bass style I would suggest studying playing bass lines separately and then begin to integrate chords, simplifying the bass lines as needed.

Starting with the bass line is a great idea, because the bass line alone will outline the harmony. Sometimes you might only want to add a melody note, or maybe just some color tones like a 3rd and 7th, or a 7th and a 9th above that.

When I listen to guys that do the walking bass stuff really well it sounds like they are just adding some color on top a lot of times as opposed to playing a bunch of really full chords. Like when Lenny Breau is playing that style it kind of sounds like he uses that type of an approach.

Just my two cents...

[ksjazzguitar]

When I comp with bass lines, I'm not thinking "drop-3" but I do end up using some. I think that you should just learn all the voicings you can and then work them into your walking bass line as they are available.

Peace,
Kevin

[Ron Stern]

That's also something I've never quite understood. OK, there's different ways to voice a chord. Which do you have to know? All of them. Which one to use? The one that sounds best in the context. Why give it a special name unless it's going to be your preferred voicing in that context? Which assumes you can remember the context along with the name. Why not just think, this voicing goes well at this part in this song?

I've seen drop voicings used as a way to harmonize a melody which is cool but again isn't it a matter of whether the voicing fits the melody and is playable, vs. whether or not it fits the definition of a drop voicing?

[JohnW400]

Originally Posted by Ron Stern

That's also something I've never quite understood. OK, there's different ways to voice a chord. Which do you have to know? All of them. Which one to use? The one that sounds best in the context. Why give it a special name unless it's going to be your preferred voicing in that context? Which assumes you can remember the context along with the name. Why not just think, this voicing goes well at this part in this song?

I've seen drop voicings used as a way to harmonize a melody which is cool but again isn't it a matter of whether the voicing fits the melody and is playable, vs. whether or not it fits the definition of a drop voicing?

Forget drop voicing think of these things:

Melody note
Bass note
Wide voicing, how wide?
Close voicing, how tight?
direction of the lines (stationary, parallel, contrary, skips)

These are the things that determine what chord to use. Not what note you drop

Root in the bass, 3rd in the melody, then there's only to options for the inner voices (5/7 or 7/5) then it's a matter of which octave the notes are in. This is where the wide/close comes in

The last part more or less helps you figure what notes to alter

[Ron Stern]

Originally Posted by JohnW400

Forget drop voicing think of these things:

Melody note
Bass note
Wide voicing, how wide?
Close voicing, how tight?
direction of the lines (stationary, parallel, contrary, skips)

Thanks, that is at the very least an avenue worth exploring. I'll be back in a couple of months to tell you how it's going.

Maybe I'm not doing it right but a problem that I have with drop voicings is that if you drop you go too low in the bass just to be able to put that note where the forumula says it should go. The alternative is to move the whole shebang up an octave, which is often too high, so you get into that Goldilocks thing. Then I ponder, why am I doing this at all? And start to construct a voicing from scratch which is slow and painful but man when I find it, it's the one.

[JonnyPac]

Originally Posted by JohnW400

Forget drop voicing think of these things:

Melody note
Bass note
Wide voicing, how wide?
Close voicing, how tight?
direction of the lines (stationary, parallel, contrary, skips)

These are the things that determine what chord to use. Not what note you drop

Root in the bass, 3rd in the melody, then there's only to options for the inner voices (5/7 or 7/5) then it's a matter of which octave the notes are in. This is where the wide/close comes in

The last part more or less helps you figure what notes to alter

+1!

Finally, someone feels the way I do about this. I've explored the dropped/raised thing, and found it extremely disappointing. This post is money!

[wizard3739]

Originally Posted by JohnW400

Forget drop voicing think of these things:

Melody note
Bass note
Wide voicing, how wide?
Close voicing, how tight?
direction of the lines (stationary, parallel, contrary, skips)

These are the things that determine what chord to use. Not what note you drop

Root in the bass, 3rd in the melody, then there's only to options for the inner voices (5/7 or 7/5) then it's a matter of which octave the notes are in. This is where the wide/close comes in

The last part more or less helps you figure what notes to alter

+1 John, your post reflects my thoughts also.

wiz

[Freddy23]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful.