Major Chord Voicings Tutorial
One of the challenges of playing jazz is being able to quickly find a voicing that works well underneath any melody note you could come across on a lead sheet.
When you are playing, you should always be consciously analysing the melody note in terms of what scale degree it is in relation to the chord underneath.
If you have memorised a range of voicings that you know work well under specific scale degrees you will be able to easily find a suitable voicings to play under any melody note you come across.
Building chords that connects the harmony to the melody in this way is called harmonising the melody and when this can be done quickly, you’re playing will begin to sound much fuller.
In this lesson I am going to explore a range of major voicings that can be used under each of the 7 notes of the Lydian mode.
Related Lessons
We can also achieve some really interesting sounds by applying upper structure triad theory to both major and minor chords.
We introduce the major modes, explaining what they are and where they come from. These 7 modes play a fundamental role in improvisation.
We explore how you can use So What voicings not only for minor chords, but also major chords by creating a quartal maj13 voicing.
Practice Tips
The key is to memorise these voicings is to remember the formulas in terms of scale degrees.
If you like the sound of one of the voicings... for example - a major chord with the #11th in the melody - immediately apply it to jazz standards
Open your fake book, or flick through the jazz standards you have learnt and look out for a major chord with the #11 in the melody.
When you find one, try your voicing, you will likely have to work out the notes using the scale degree formula. Perhaps starting with the root at the bottom and working up.
By doing this you will retain the shape and the information much better…. because you have taken the time to work it out.
Keep looking through your fake book, or through your jazz standards until you have built the same voicing in a few different keys… the more keys you build it in, the deeper your understand will become.
By simply running the voicing through all 12 keys, you will have difficulty remembering all of the shapes, and also applying them in context of actual tunes (which is the end goal!)
