How To Play Spread Voicings
In this lesson we arrange the A Section of the tune “Georgia On My Mind” with simple but effective spread voicings. Spread voicings help us to achieve a balanced sound when arranging lead sheets for solo jazz piano performance.
For this module we will stick exclusively to the 1st A Section of “Georgia On My Mind” and in the 2nd module we will learn the B Section of the tune.
Arranging Lead Sheets with Spread Voicings
To arrange a lead sheet for solo piano we must be comfortable with the concept of spread voicings which can also be referred to as shell voicings.
To construct a spread voicing, we play the root note of the chord with our left hand in the lower registers of the piano, we play the melody with our right hand, and we ‘voice’ the 3rd and 7th of the chord in between.
The 3rd and 7th of the chord can be played with either hand, and often this role will be shared between both hands to achieve an even spread of notes on the piano and balanced sound in our voicings.
Lesson Downloads
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Spread Voicings Notation File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
Learn how to play shell voicings which contain just the root, 3rd, and 7th of the chord. We take the beautiful tune “The Nearness Of You”.
Lead sheets are a useful tool when starting out with jazz, but by learning tunes by memory, it will benefit your playing in a number of ways.
A seventh chord is a triad which has been extended to include the 7th degree of the scale. This creates a fuller sound than simple 3-note triads.
Practice Tips
- Try to memorise the chords and the melody to the A Section. This might take a few days or it might take a few weeks, that’s natural.
I notice that you change the melody in bar 4 and don’t play the melody note E in bar 5. Is there a reason for that or is it just an improv on the melody?
Hi Michel,
Apologies for the late reply here. I wasn’t notified of this comment.
To answer your question, yes it’s exactly as you say … an improv on the melody.
If you listen to 10 different recordings of this tune, you will hear that each musician plays the melody differently. We have the creative freedom to change the notes (to an extent!), add notes in, take notes out, change the phrasing of the notes, add grace notes, chromaticism etc…
The melody should be recognisable but we have the freedom to embellish it as we see fit, and in fact that is exactly what we explore in this course.
Let me know if I can help further.
Cheers, Hayden