Chord Extensions Piano Course
Extended chords are one of the hallmarks of jazz piano. We explore some useful extended chords and apply the voicings to 4 jazz standards.
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Extended chords are one of the hallmarks of jazz and create the rich sounds and sororities played by the jazz piano masters. The first area that we need to understand the concept of 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths and how these tones are derived from the major scale.
Memorise The Melody Scale Degree
When learning new chord voicings it’s important to memorise the scale degree at the top of voicing. For example, the top note of the So What Voicing is the 5th, and so when playing from lead sheets, whenever we come across a minor chord (in any key) with the 5th in the melody, the So What Voicing will sound great.
The Kenny Barron Voicing has the 11th on the top so this is a great minor voicing when the 11th is in the melody.
The Herbie Hancock Voicing has the 9th in the melody so this will be a good choice of voicing when you come across the 9th in the melody over a minor chord.
In all lessons in this course we identify the scale degree of the melody note in order to choose the most suitable voicings – always try to do this with any tune you are learning.
Theory & Jazz Standards
We should always practice and apply the theory in context of jazz standards. The jazz standards are the vehicle that we use to understand the theory and when we apply chords and voicings in context of a jazz standard we retain the information much better than from theory drills and exercises.
This course contains 4 jazz standard lessons on the tunes “Misty”, “Tenderly” and ” My Foolish Heart”. In each of these lessons we apply the common extended chord voicings to get you comfortable playing 2-handed extended chord voicings.
Extended chords create a richer and more complex sound than triads and 7th chords and are used to create more interesting progressions.
Introduced by the pianist Bill Evans, the 'So What' chord is a minor 11th voicing that sounds great over minor chords with the 5th in the melody.
The Herbie Hancock voicing is a rich-sounding, two-handed minor 11th chord. A perfect choice when the 9th is in the melody over minor chords.
The Kenny Barron voicing is an minor 11th chord voicing built from 5th intervals. The voicing is names after acclaimed jazz pianist Kenny Barron.
Misty is one of the most popular jazz ballads and the distinctive melody is immediately recognisable amongst jazz musicians.
Written in the key of Eb Major, Tenderly follows a 32 measure A – B1 – A – B2 form and has an impressionistic character similar to early Debussy.
'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' has also been played by many great jazz musicians over the years. In this lesson we create a solo ballad arrangement.
This lesson applies upper structure triads to the tune Tenderly and also discuss ways to add fills and runs in between the chords of this great tune.
One of Americas greatest ballads... the most famous version of My Foolish Heart is undoubtedly the Bill Evans trio version.
For the first lesson in this practice series, we will explore some useful drills and exercises for practicing major and minor 9th chords.
We’re going to stack the chord tones sequentially in thirds, playing the 7th chord in our left hand, and the 9, #11, and 13 in our right hand.
We have explored major, minor, and dominant chords, now it’s time to put them all together in the most common progression in jazz; the 251 progression.
Learning chord voicings is an important skill for the jazz pianist. In this lesson we cover a 5 step process for learning any chord voicing.
