§ Big List of Jazz Voicings

• Jazz Voicings in Under An Hour by Jeremy Siskind
• don't want doublings (same note played twice, lower and higher). Can be using the fingers to play more colorful tones, also, it shuts down the resonance of a sound.
• Some use doublings on purpose, but we avoid them.
• Don't want to just have a stack of thirds, sounds a litle less sophisticated.
• We want to avoid the minor 9th (octave plus half-step), as it sounds crazy dissonant.
• The essential tones are te 3rd and the 7th.

§ Type A/B Voicings

• Only uses essential tones. Learn inversions of these (Type A: 3rd below) followed by (Type B: 7th below). When playing E A D G C chord sequence for Cmaj7 (III-VI-II-V-I). This leads to a smooth ascent.
• NOTE: sounds crazy dissonant?

§ Thickened Line Voicings

• Kinds of voicings that are useful to enforcing a melody.

§ Thickened Line: Closed Position / Shearing Voicing

• The melody notes are bottom and top.
• Use "mary had a little lamb" to play this.
• Play on the bepop scale

§ Thickcened Line: Drop 2 Voicings

• Start with a closed position voicing, get rid of the lowest/bottom note, and move the second note from the top down an ocatve.
• These are 'lighter' sounding than closed position voicings.

§ Thickcened Line: Drop 3 Voicings (Can Learn Later)

• Start with a closed position voicing, get rid of the lowest/bottom note, and move the third note from the top down an ocatve.
• Not as harmonious as drop-2. Can be mixed with drop-2 for a more 'colorful' sound.

§ Modal: So What Voicing

• Pick a mode, say, D dorian.
• In modal jazz, all notes are 'equal' (so there is no 'essential tones', or 'chord and non chord tones').
• Play 3rd or 4th intervals from the mode .
• Stack 4th, 4th, 4th, and 3rd from within the mode. 5 notes in total.
• For example, in D dorian, we can play low:D G C F E, which is 3rd 4th 4th 4th 3rd from the mode.
• Can start on any note from the mode. Starting from C, we get low:C F E B G.
• These two make the classic 'so-what' call and response pattern: low: C F [RH: E B G], low: D G [RH: C F E].