Shell Voicings

[=DK=]

A shell voicing (Not to be confused with partial voicing, which lacks at least 1 necessary tone) is a two note chord with the two "most important" notes. Minor uses only b3 & b7, Dominant is 3 & b7, Major is 3 & 7. Shell voicing are not only a helpful learning tool, but are chord fragments that only require one or two fingers per chord. Not only that, but they voice-lead themselves, and thus can be used as a foundation for building a voice-led passage.

Root position and 2nd inversion drop 2 voicings can be thought of as a power chord with a shell voicing. In fact, Major 7 and Minor 7 shell voicings are power chords, built on their respective 3rd's. A shell voicing with just a root beneath is a 3 note "Freddie Green" voicing.

Shell voicings have a sparse, unobtrusive sound, and therefore are especially useful during a polyphonic piano solo, laying down a foundation without stepping on the pianist's feet.

How do you use shell voicings? How do you think of them? How often and when do you use them?

[Moonray]

Hey man you laying this on us or what?

Kinda strange to just come out with this statement appropo
of what?

Some newbies may not know this little gem.

Great! Now they do.....How are you expecting us to respond ?

I don't get your tone [of voice that is]....I'm sure you get a great tone!

Sorry to be a bit "sarky" as we say down under....but this stuff even filtered
down here a generation or so ago.

So what up man.......Want to take it from the top, one more time.....?

[jtizzle]

^^ What? hahahaha

Shell voicings. I, uh.. almost never use them. To much of an incomplete/hollow sound for me. I use two note voicings, but I don't use shell voicings by themselves. When I construct a chord I start with the shell voicing, and add alterations I want. The only time I play a shell voicing is with tritones. I like playing tritones I'm a fan of dissonance haha

[=DK=]

Moonray- Sorry for the ambiguity. The post is more about the question at the end. The statement is really to clear up my definition of shell voicings. Really this post is more for my information than anybody else's. You know, just gathering the opinions of those willing to share.

jtizze- I had a teacher who taught alterations and extensions that way, putting the shell in two of the bottom four strings, and building up.

What about in a solo situation, where you play a walking bassline, the chords, and the melody? With three tasks and four fingers, surely a one-finger voicing comes in handy.

[randalljazz]

hmmm...i think of shell chords as root, 3rd & 7th (or 6th). very useful when no bass player present. no clash with whomever you are comping because of different tensions/alterations. easy to grab, very clean sound.

3rd & 7th voicings are good with a bass player, very flexible for adding color tones.

both kinds are good for chord melody on the fly...

[NSJ]

Originally Posted by randalljazz

hmmm...i think of shell chords as root, 3rd & 7th (or 6th). very useful when no bass player present. no clash with whomever you are comping because of different tensions/alterations. easy to grab, very clean sound.

3rd & 7th voicings are good with a bass player, very flexible for adding color tones.

both kinds are good for chord melody on the fly...

Martin Taylor thinks of his solo playing as lines intersecting, instead of just a chord inversion with the "right" melody note on top.

He breaks it up thusly: 1.melody note (1st and 2nd string, generally)
2.Root progression (walking baselines, 5th and 6th strings, generally)
3. Color tones (3rd and 7ths, usually 4th and 3th strings, generally)

I guess the trick is, to show lines intersecting/moving with their own independent melodic moment, how to have a 2nd melodic line, i.e., the movement of the "inner voices", #2 above, develop along side the top voice?


I guess one has to write this out, first, to really see it, before one can organically improvise it on the fly Unless you're Martin Taylor.

[randalljazz]

Originally Posted by NSJ

Martin Taylor thinks of his solo playing as lines intersecting, instead of just a chord inversion with the "right" melody note on top.

He breaks it up thusly: 1.melody note (1st and 2nd string, generally)
2.Root progression (walking baselines, 5th and 6th strings, generally)
3. Color tones (3rd and 7ths, usually 4th and 3th strings, generally)

I guess the trick is, to show lines intersecting/moving with their own independent melodic moment, how to have a 2nd melodic line, i.e., the movement of the "inner voices", #2 above, develop along side the top voice?


I guess one has to write this out, first, to really see it, before one can organically improvise it on the fly Unless you're Martin Taylor.

this is just what you get if you play shell voicings (as i defined them) on 6 (or 5) and 4-3.

figured bass, chord symbols, part-writing, all the same thing...

(3rds and 7ths are not color tones...but you know that, nav )

[=DK=]

Randall,- With the root on bottom? Oftentimes the root is played as the first note of a walking bassline, so it's useful to get the grip under your fingers. Also, the root adds some harmonic stability, at the cost of taking up a finger or causing an obligatory barre.

NSJ- You know, my teacher has a similar approach. He plays a 7 string and splits it as 6 & 7 for bass, 3, 4 & 5 for chords, 1 & 2 for melody. Again, those numbers aren't set in stone.

[=DK=]

Ah, yes, "part-writing". But to play as NSJ said takes "part-thinking". That's what I aspire to.

[FatJeff]

I've been horsing around a lot this summer with 2-note chords for comping, and as fills and accompaniment to solo guitar work. What I'm aspiring to do is to use these little 2-noters as "stabs" in solo and trio work. Something like Fareed Haque demonstrates here:

YouTube Video

It's quite simple, really. The 3-7 patterns are such that you don't even really have to worry about the quality of the underlying chords, other than if they're major, minor or dominant. And since they only have 2 notes, there's only two inversions: root and first. That makes learning them a breeze, instead of wrestling with 4 inversions on all string sets like I did when I was learning 4-note 7th voicings. Kind of wish I had done this first, because with the 4-noters I found myself having to pare them down (by leaving out notes) when playing with others...these little 3-7 voicings sound great with other instruments! Also, since there's only 2 notes, and after a little bit of practicing you automatically know which is the 3rd and which is the 7th, it's easy to extend these voicings to include 9ths and 13th, or to alter them and make them #11s or b13s.

[=DK=]

C5/A5= Am7, where C5 is the shell.

Shell chords are helpful to learning and constructing 4 note voicings. They were to me anyway.

Thanks Jeff! I couldn't agree more.

"Stabs", huh? Interesting.

[jtizzle]

Originally Posted by =DK=

Moonray- Sorry for the ambiguity. The post is more about the question at the end. The statement is really to clear up my definition of shell voicings. Really this post is more for my information than anybody else's. You know, just gathering the opinions of those willing to share.

jtizze- I had a teacher who taught alterations and extensions that way, putting the shell in two of the bottom four strings, and building up.

What about in a solo situation, where you play a walking bassline, the chords, and the melody? With three tasks and four fingers, surely a one-finger voicing comes in handy.

I don't limit myself to placing them in 4ths/5ths. I like to space them out too and put something between them. It's weird, I come from a rock/metal background, but right now, I'm not a huge fan of 5ths, but it really depends on the voicing. I like 4ths a lot though.

[=DK=]

That's an interesting concept. Most of the voicings I can think of have their 3's & 7's as close as possible. Could I have an example?

[SteveCarter]

Originally Posted by NSJ

Martin Taylor thinks of his solo playing as lines intersecting, instead of just a chord inversion with the "right" melody note on top.

He breaks it up thusly: 1.melody note (1st and 2nd string, generally)
2.Root progression (walking baselines, 5th and 6th strings, generally)
3. Color tones (3rd and 7ths, usually 4th and 3th strings, generally)

I guess the trick is, to show lines intersecting/moving with their own independent melodic moment, how to have a 2nd melodic line, i.e., the movement of the "inner voices", #2 above, develop along side the top voice?


I guess one has to write this out, first, to really see it, before one can organically improvise it on the fly Unless you're Martin Taylor.

I never heard the term "shell voicing" in 25 years of teaching guitar at Berklee. I first ran across the term on forums. People tend to use the term as if it has a clear, singular meaning, but I don't think it does.

I think that many of the 3-note voicings I use would be called shell voicings, by some players. I got the idea from Pat Metheny. We were both teaching at Berklee, and had some free time between classes, so we jammed. I liked the way he comped and improvised with small voicings and I asked him about it. He said his starting point was to put the 3rd and 7th on strings 3 and 4, then for bass lines, add the root and fifth and passing tones on strings 4 and 5, and for comping or chord melody add root, fifth, or tension on strings 2 and/or 1. Like most of Pat's ideas, it's a clear, simple concept that can easily be expanded. Works for me.

Steve

[brwnhornet59]

Originally Posted by SteveCarter

I never heard the term "shell voicing" in 25 years of teaching guitar at Berklee. I first ran across the term on forums. People tend to use the term as if it has a clear, singular meaning, but I don't think it does.

I think that many of the 3-note voicings I use would be called shell voicings, by some players. I got the idea from Pat Metheny. We were both teaching at Berklee, and had some free time between classes, so we jammed. I liked the way he comped and improvised with small voicings and I asked him about it. He said his starting point was to put the 3rd and 7th on strings 3 and 4, then for bass lines, add the root and fifth and passing tones on strings 4 and 5, and for comping or chord melody add root, fifth, or tension on strings 2 and/or 1. Like most of Pat's ideas, it's a clear, simple concept that can easily be expanded. Works for me.

Steve

I can dig it!!

[jtizzle]

I don't have my guitar on me right now so it's hard to think of a voicing with a spaced out shell, but here's something pretty cool.

Emaj13 (rootless) x x 12 10 8 8
D F G C
Gmaj9 x x 9 12 10 14
B G A F#
I believe that voicing is a Ben Monder voicing.


But as you can see, in the first chord, the shell is spaced out with the F in between in the 4th and 2nd strings.
In the second chord it's more spaced out in the 4th and 1st string and the inside voices being the root and 9th, which also gives a cool close-harmony sound. They require a bit of a stretch, but the sound is really nice.
I could probably give you more but I don't have my guitar, and I'm an idiot without it haha

[Kman]

Shell voicings are great for comping at fast tempos. They are great for bebop.

[JonnyPac]

Here's a little sheet on them from my book (though these are pretty common knowledge amongst you fellas). I think they are stylistic and useful in many ways. They are not my personal favorites, but I still think they are a must in a jazz guitarists vocabulary. Enjoy.



EDIT: III7 aka V7 of minor.

[brwnhornet59]

Jonny, you always chime in at the most unexpected times!!!

Where have you been Brother?

[JonnyPac]

lol.

Just layin' low... I've actually been on my favorite 80's toy collecting forum the last few weeks. Gettin' my real geek on!

[randalljazz]

Originally Posted by JonnyPac

Here's a little sheet on them from my book (though these are pretty common knowledge amongst you fellas). I think they are stylistic and useful in many ways. They are not my personal favorites, but I still think they are a must in a jazz guitarists vocabulary. Enjoy.



EDIT: III7 aka V7 of minor.

these are about exactly the ones i use. very practical in the right circumstance. clean & good voice-leading.

@frogstory--i think the term originated with piano players, though i couldn't say who coined the term. (bud powell used them a lot, and maybe ahmad jamal, too.)