Minor Chord Voicings For Jazz Piano
This is the second lesson in the series on learning to harmonise the melody of jazz standards. In the first lesson we looked at harmonising the melody note of major chords and in this lesson we are going to focus on minor chords and focus on the different voicings that can be used under each of the 7 notes of the Dorian scale.
The majority of the time, the melody over minor chords will be one of these 7 notes so if you memorise formulas for harmonising these melody notes, you will always be able to find a rich and interesting sounding voicing for minor chords in all 12 keys.
Lesson Downloads
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Minor Voicings Lesson Supplement File Type: pdf -
Minor Voicing Lesson Transcript File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
We can also achieve some really interesting sounds by applying upper structure triad theory to both major and minor chords.
In this lesson we explore how you can navigate over the minor line cliché using bass lines, two-handed chords and left hand voicings.
We have voiced minor 251 progressions with our left hand and so now it’s time to spread the notes across 2 hands to get bigger chords with more impact!
Practice Tips
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Every time you come across a chord on a lead sheet, you should analyse the scale degree of the melody in relation to the chord underneath.
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Making a conscious analysis of this when you are playing through jazz standards will help you memorise and internalise voicings. This is really important!
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By ‘internalise’ I mean remember the formula. With jazz it is far more efficient to think in terms of numbers (or scale degrees) than to think of individual notes.
- For example, with the So What Chord, from top to bottom, it contains the Root. 11th, b7th, b3rd and 5th. Knowing this formula means you can then apply it to any key (considering you know your major/minor scales... which is why they are so important!)
Thanks Hayden. I’ve been trying to explore all of your lessons that deal with minor chords. I’ve downloaded the worksheets about major minor upper structures as well as right hand voicings for minor chords. Are there any more that I might be missing? Thanks!
Hi Josh,
By the sounds of it you have all of them.
Here is a cheat sheet that contains many different types of chords: pianogroove.com/resources/common-voicing-formulas/
Not only minor, but major, dominant, sus, -7b5, diminished and upper structures.
Cheers,
Hayden
Hello Hayden.
Which lesson does this score contain?
Hey John 👋
Are you talking about this PDF?… pianogroove.com/resources/minor-chord-voicings-supplement/
In this lesson, we cover examples from many jazz standards, the PDF file mentioned above tells you the name of each jazz standard.
Does that answer your question?
If I have misunderstood you, let me know 🙂
Cheers,
Hayden
I am talking about this pdf pianogroove.com/resources/common-voicing-formulas/
Ah yes, that is just a cheat sheet… it doesn’t accompany any 1 lesson in particular. It contains the chords from many lessons on different voicings.
It was an idea from one of our Russian students to create a cheat sheet encompassing all the types of voicings. I will likely add more to it… if you have any suggestions to improve it let me know 🙂 Cheers, Hayden
Thank you!
These lessons explaining voicing options for each scale degree in the melody are great to help create my own arrangements. It would be great if you could add a lesson covering options for voicing m7b5 chords under each different scale degree. The cheat sheet helps with some situations but a lesson like this with examples in actual tunes would really help put it all in context. Thx!
Fantastic idea Scott… I will get that added to this course.
That’s awesome to hear this course is helping you create your own arrangements… that was the idea behind it so it’s brilliant to hear that 🙂
Yes I feel you, when it is demonstrated in context of a tune, it sticks better in the memory.
Leave it with me and I will get the lesson planned and recorded.
Cheers,
Hayden
Thx!