Mastering Left Hand Voicings

We start this course by exploring the concept of rootless chord voicings. Rootless voicings are used in an ensemble setting when a bass player is present but they are also very useful in a solo piano context.

Once you understand the construction of major, minor and dominant rootless voicings. You can then put these chords together to create the rootless major 251 progression .

We then look at the minor 251 progression which is more complex than major harmony. Just like the major 251, the minor 251 is very common and is present is most jazz standards. We explore the minor 251 in it’s most basic form and then also introduce an alternative way to play the progression, starting on the -11b5 chord.

It’s important to create an effective practice routine for 251 progressions. We discuss and demo an important piece of software – the iRealPro – and demonstrate how you can practice major 251s using this useful tool.

The final theory lesson in this course is on the minor line cliche which is one of the most common chord progressions in jazz. It’s important to understand how to navigate this important progression.

To finish this course, we apply the theory concepts to 4 famous jazz standards. We start with Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood” which is a great tune to work on the minor line cliche.

Next up is a 2 part study of Johnny Green’s “Body & Soul” . We work on left hand voicings and demonstrate how useful these voicings can be.

‘My Funny Valentine’ by Victor Young is perhaps the most famous example of the minor line cliche and a nice tune for practicing minor harmony.

We then look at another number by Victor Young – “Beautiful Love”. Written in the key of D Minor, this is a great tune for practicing minor 251s in context of a jazz standard.

These jazz standard lessons also cover altered harmony and upper structure triads and so you should check out that course if you haven’t already.

The final jazz standard study is the beautiful tune “Have You Met Miss Jones” where we explore rootless voicings and a full solo piano arrangement.