altered chod voicings

[gingerjazz]

if a piece of music asks for an altered chord is it usual to play a rootless voicing as it seems to me to br the only way to get asensible fingering does it matter if you dont include all four alterations in your voicing any help would be great i fully understand what an altered chord is but arnt sure what fingerings most jazz guitarists would use thanks in advance for any replies

[Scrybe]

check the chords either side of your altered chord - usually (in my experience) an altered chords will be used in a progression to create a chromatic run of notes (e.g. G-G#-A).to find this you need to know what notes are being played in the chords either side of that chord. if the G# is a sharpened 5th, flattened 5th, sharp 9, or flat9, this would be the one you need to include in the example I just gave. sometimes there'll be two chromatic runs (e.g. a #5 and a #9) in which case include both where possible.

hope this helps some. just woke up. more clarity after coffee.

[gingerjazz]

thanks skrybe coffee sounds good two sugars in mine please

[gingerjazz]

still not sure if im supposed to use all alterations or not

[Scrybe]

it's generally left up to the discretion of the player whether you alter all of them or not. as a rule of thumb (or habit) I tend to alter the 5th before I alter the 9th, but the key alteration will usually form a chromatic run with the notes from the chords on either side - e.g. G7 followed by Galt followed by Cmaj7 => sharp the 5th in Galt and you get:

GBDF
GBD#F
CEGB

You get a chromatic run going D D# E which reinforces the tension-resolution feeing of the G-C progression (V-I).

[Reg]

In jazz, the standard altered chord has a # or b 9 and a b13. Notes come from Alt. scale or 7th degree of melodic minor scale. G7alt. would imply,
G,B,F and Ab or A# and Eb. The b5 or #11 is usually not played. #5 implied a different harmonic context. We use and see the the chord symbol #5 in dom.7th chords mainly because of "Standard Chord Symbol Notation" by Carl Brandt and Clinton Roemer from 1975. It's what most fake books, music programs and keyboards have adapted...doesn't mean it's correct...Reg