The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    OK, so I was the guy in my Harmony class at uni that refused to play examples on the piano, so I brought my guitar and a ghetto blaster instead to get the extra notes my guitar could not. Weird, I know, I was known as the "problem child" for refusing to play the piano. And get this, when the tutor asked why, I said without blinking "because I don't believe the piano to be a real instrument, it's a machine!"

    Strange then that I listen to a lot of piano players, seems I like to hear it, just don't wanna play it... Anyhoo, so my wife has started to learn piano and says she wants to "jam" with me! Sounds like it could be fun, I'll just tell her what chords to play, all the notes in the right inversions, simple, right?

    But I wanna hear the chords close to the way I play them, starting with drop 2's. I wanna hear at least a 9th in there most of the time, so the top four notes will be often rootless. So rootless Cmaj9 in drop 2 is : B E G D. First question, would you play all 4 notes in the right hand? Or play the B with the left? Of course, it's a piano, so we can put a root note in there as well! (whoopee). Now, would you add the C below the B like this: C B - E G D ? Or would you keep things more basic by only playing a root note with the left hand and dropping the 5th from the right hand? - C - B E D ?

    A sound I think I hear in piano seems to be an alternation between root + 3rd in the left hand and then root and 7th in the left hand for a following chord. But now we're straying from what I'm familiar with on the guitar, so we're suddenly in "anything goes" territory! As many of you know, there are countless ways to voice chords on piano, so many spread voicings etc. But if my wife wants an effective simple formula for voicing all the chords I'd usually play as rootless drop 2's (lots of 9ths, 13th etc), but adding a root, then what would you recommend? And would it be one or two notes in the left hand? Keep or drop the 5th in the right hand?? Is root + 5th in the left hand a good "basic" sound?

    I can't believe I'm asking this, I must sound like a total noob, but it's just something I've never really thought about ...

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by princeplanet
    OK, so I was the guy in my Harmony class at uni that refused to play examples on the piano, so I brought my guitar and a ghetto blaster instead to get the extra notes my guitar could not. Weird, I know, I was known as the "problem child" for refusing to play the piano. And get this, when the tutor asked why, I said without blinking "because I don't believe the piano to be a real instrument, it's a machine!"

    Strange then that I listen to a lot of piano players, seems I like to hear it, just don't wanna play it... Anyhoo, so my wife has started to learn piano and says she wants to "jam" with me! Sounds like it could be fun, I'll just tell her what chords to play, all the notes in the right inversions, simple, right?

    But I wanna hear the chords close to the way I play them, starting with drop 2's. I wanna hear at least a 9th in there most of the time, so the top four notes will be often rootless. So rootless Cmaj9 in drop 2 is : B E G D. First question, would you play all 4 notes in the right hand? Or play the B with the left? Of course, it's a piano, so we can put a root note in there as well! (whoopee). Now, would you add the C below the B like this: C B - E G D ? Or would you keep things more basic by only playing a root note with the left hand and dropping the 5th from the right hand? - C - B E D ?

    A sound I think I hear in piano seems to be an alternation between root + 3rd in the left hand and then root and 7th in the left hand for a following chord. But now we're straying from what I'm familiar with on the guitar, so we're suddenly in "anything goes" territory! As many of you know, there are countless ways to voice chords on piano, so many spread voicings etc. But if my wife wants an effective simple formula for voicing all the chords I'd usually play as rootless drop 2's (lots of 9ths, 13th etc), but adding a root, then what would you recommend? And would it be one or two notes in the left hand? Keep or drop the 5th in the right hand?? Is root + 5th in the left hand a good "basic" sound?

    I can't believe I'm asking this, I must sound like a total noob, but it's just something I've never really thought about ...

    ii = FC...FACE
    V = FB... FABE
    I = EB... E G B D


    Alternatively, instead of 3rds and 7ths in the LH, if you want roots, this is probably the simplest full sounding approach.

    ii - D A C
    V = D A B
    I = C G B


    Hope that helps.

  4. #3

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    "Lead Sheet Drop 2" is a basic way of voicing on the piano - a mechanical approach suitable for someone with musical knowledge to getting close to sounding pretty nice on the piano. The lead sheet shows you the chord names and the melody line... so:

    - form the chords with the right hand so that the melody note is played with your pinky (this will mechanically force rootless, inverted, etc. as needed)

    - drop 2 means lift the right hand ring finger (second finger from the top - this voices the melody note with a gap under it to set it apart, and now you have two fingers (ring and pinky) to play the melody line)

    - whatever the note that was under the ring finger of the right hand, complete the drop and play that note an octave below with the thumb of the left hand (you have four fingers under the thumb to walk, hop, or play part of the chord)

    You can start by forming the right hand chord with the melody note on top first, then remove the second from the top and put it on the left hand thumb. Once you get good at that, then you can switch to one step as you read the lead sheet with fingers going to the keys. This automatically identifies the melody, sets it apart, and provides two fingers to play it; the more complex the chord, the more likely it will be rootless, inverted, more interesting, and the left hand thumb playing the dropped note always sounds nice, and the rest of the left hand is available.

    It is a quick way to get up to being able to convert a lead sheet into what actually sounds like music on the piano. The attention to the melody line's placement at the top of the chord will help learning how to find the melody and how to build chords on the piano. You can start off using just the thumb of the left hand under the right hand and it will sound nice... figure out what else to do with the left hand later or find a bassist.

  5. #4

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    Jerry Coker's Jazz Keyboard book is what I recommend. Good stuff for the beginner (which I am).

    He starts with this:

    Cm7 F9 Bbmaj7

    Two notes per hand, notice the top two notes on the first two chords are the same making it easy to play. The exercise is to take these voicing through the cycle of 5ths.

    Cm7 1-7-b3-5 or C Bb Eb G
    F9 1-3-b7-9 or F A Eb G
    Bbmaj7 1-7-3-5 or Bb A D F

    Then Cm9 F13 Bbmaj9 through the cycle. I like the one with the 9th and the third next to each other.

    Cm9 1-7-9-b3-5 or C Bb D Eb G
    F13 1-3-13-b7-9 or F A D Eb G
    Bbmaj9 1-7-9-3-5 or Bb A C D F




  6. #5

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  7. #6
    Thanks for responses so far. I was worried that there would be little consensus... and that indeed seems to be the case ...