Four Way Closed Voicings (Spec. Levine - Jazz Theory Book)

[baerashbrewer]

Has anyone had luck experimenting with four way closed voicings on guitar? Are they possible? I'd like to utilize the harmonization of the bebop scales (C6, dim, C6, dim, C6, dim, etc...) as illustrated on p. 180 of Levine's Book.

[bako]

Some 4 way close voicings are playable on guitar, some on select string groups and some not at all. It is the interval of the minor and major 2nds found between the Ma7th/b7th and the octave that causes the biggest problem.

I play all of them in a non-simultaneous way, broken up into diads 2+2, 2+2+2, 1+3, 3+1, 3+3 or arpeggiated.

CEGA---DFG#B---EGAC---FG#BD---GACE---G#BDF---ACEG---BDFG#---CEGA
Pretty stretchy stuff.

[JohnW400]

You might try a semi close voiced version where you drop the lowest note down an octave keeping the top 3 notes close.

6 54 321
C xx EGA
D xx F G# B
E xx GAC

etc

[baerashbrewer]

Thanks! Arpeggiated, they make some nice ascending and descending runs.