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This Issue: Jazz Voicings

Even the most ‘rock ’n’ roll’ among us have probably marvelled on occasion when hearing the harmonic/chordal possibilities coaxed out of a guitar by the likes of Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow. While this feature doesn’t claim to be the last word in how to achieve this, it will hopefully give you some interesting information to consider – not just for chord playing, but in note choices for embellishments and solos, even over blues-rock powerchords.

Though the underlying chord may be relatively plain and simple, there is usually scope for adding melodic interest by superimposing more harmonically detailed ideas. Even the minor pentatonic/blues scale contains a b 7th, which is not present in your average blues accompaniment or powerchords! We are simply extending that principle a little further. Having dealt with the blues-rock implications, we will now return to jazzier pastures with this ‘standard’-style chord progression of b bmaj7. Cm7, F7, B maj7 and E

Example 1

This voicing of Cm7 is much darker and ‘jazzier’ than the more commonly seen Am7-style shape. By omitting the strong 5th (G) b on the fourth string, the minor 3rd (E ) now fretted there is b b allowed to speak more clearly, along with the 7th (B ) on the second string. To make this a minor 9th chord, simply move the Eb

on the second string down to D on the 3rd fret.

Example 3

Bb

maj7 can be played in a variety of ways, but this way of ‘stacking’ the notes is particularly jazzy, due to the omission of the 5th again. Technically, this could be viewed as a D minor triad

Bb (Dm/Bb over a bass note ) from a ‘chord shapes’ point of view, though that would be a little out of context in theory terms.

Example 2

Stripping back this F7 chord to its bare essentials, we omit the 5th b b) (C) by muting the fifth string, moving straight on to the 7th (E on the fourth string. The 3rd (A) appears as usual, on the third string. This is as much about the muting as it is about the fretting, but the effect is striking.

Example 4

Eb Eb This maj7 could be extended to an maj13 by simply flattening your fourth finger over the B and E strings at the 8th fret – very SRV! As it stands, we have once again omitted the 5th to allow the more delicate harmony of the major 3rd and major 7th to be ‘front and centre’.