Jazz Piano Harmony: Five Essential Quartal Chord Voicings
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- čas přidán 22. 12. 2013
- In this jazz piano harmony lesson I'm going to show you a special kind of chord voicing: quartal voicing or voicing by fourths, also often called "quartal harmony". These so-called fourth chords have a very atonal sound, and can be used to give a modern sound to any chord or chord progression you play on the piano! You're going to learn five absolutely essential voicings which will spice up your harmonic vocabulary considerably - two for major chords, two for dominant chords and one for minor chords.
First, download the reference sheet (in PDF format) which clearly shows the different fourth voicings used throughout the current video:
www.assaftal.com/QuartalHarmon...
Here's what's going to happen in this piano lesson:
1. First, I'm going to start by playing a Cm11 chord, made out of the notes C, Eb, G, Bb, D and F. I'm going to play this chord using two different voicings, and show you how, simply by moving notes around, you can get this "modern" atonal chord voicing which uses a lot of perfect 4th intervals.
2. Then I'm going to present you with five quartal voicing ideas: two for major chords, two for dominant 7th chords, and one for minor chords. All of these ideas are encapsulated in the harmony "cheat sheet" in the link above, so be sure to download it! Any time you see, say, a major chord, you can try playing one of the two quartal voicings in the cheat sheet to see if they fit (assuming you're after the open, modern sound that voicing in fourths offers).
3. Finally, I'm going to talk a bit about the five different piano voicings suggested in the PDF, and walk you through the reasonings of some of the examples, trying to "convince" you they are actually what I say they are (e.g. that the voicing of C major is really a C major chord, etc ... ).
I'm going to keep things simple by sticking to one chord note, C, but you should transpose the voicings presented in this video to all 12 keys. Since there are 5 chord voicings, this amounts to 12*5=60 patterns to memorize. Quite a bit, but not that bad! These voicings really expand your harmonic palette, allowing you much greater freedom when playing your chord progressions.
========= Other Related Videos and Playlists =========
Here are other interesting playlists from my channel which group together my different piano lessons by theme/category:
Reading Sheet Music for Beginners: a 4-Part Series
• Reading Sheet Music fo...
Inspiring Piano Harmony, Chord and Voicing Tips and Tricks:
• Inspiring Piano Harmon...
Exercises for Developing Piano Technique
• Piano Exercises for De...
The 2-5-1 Harmonic Progression: a 4-Part Series
• Playlist
The "Piano Quickie" series, with byte-sized lessons about piano harmony and music theory in general:
• Piano Quickie: Bite-Si... - Hudba
Ocasionally I come across a youtube channel that makes me so excited about learning jazz that I keep hopping between my computer and piano to try it all out. Your channel is one of them. Thanks a lot for your inspirational and very well explained tutorials.
***** You're welcome. Good luck in your quest for becoming a great jazz musician!
Thanks for your class. You speak in a calm manner, then is possible that people like me, who know little English, hearing attentively, understand your explanation. Congratulations!
+Paulo Lima Thank you Paulo! Glad it came across clearly.
I need key G progressions
Your videos are EXTREMELY tuitional, precise and the most important, comprehensive! You clear up easily every question that I had for years... Thank you VERY much!!!
Thank you sir you have helped me immensely.
Well explained! It is inspiring, thanks for your generosity!
These are great lessons - much appreciated.
my love and passion for piano was a little behind these days and these videos have gotten my spirits all back up again, thank you!
Thanks Luis, and good luck practicing.
thanks for sharing your knowledge! I was looking for this kind of lessons for years!!!
Very well explained and simple to understand. Thanks.
Thank you!!! Your classes are so informative, clear and interesting. Please keep them coming!!!!!
Doing my best. Currently I'm releasing a new video every week, so subscribe to keep up to date :)
perfect teaching ever..thank you
I really appreciated this lesson. Well done
Really well explained at a good pace for a learner like me. Thank you for your excellent video.
awesome. i love the sounds of this voicing.
Your method of teaching is clear and precise. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Max.
Just the tutorial i needed! Thank you!
you are an extremely good teacher compliments
these voicings are the STUFF. I play them and I open my third eye of time. They increase my voice lead by 32% and make 3rds sound like 3rds
great lesson. i'm not sure if its considered an official quartal voicing...but i love the chord voicing in Eb minor: left hand plays Ab-Eb-Ab right hand plays anything in this tonal group but I love it in Eb minor and B major. Bb major also works in there, as well as Ab minor, lots of nice inversions to play in the right hand. altogether it is really nice to do a simple walk down with the left hand so Ab-Eb-Ab to Gb-Db-Gb to E-B-E to Eb-Bb-Eb all the while mixing in appropriate melodies/licks/chords with the right hand. flicking off the minor third in the right hand can give some really nice blues/gospel sound while maintaining this nice open jazzy voice with the left. absolutely love this voicing. cheers for the video. just wanted to add this for anyone interested in soul/gospel/blues style piano as it is difficult to find good lessons online in this style that doesn't sound incredibly dated. maybe i'll post a video! lol
Just come across these explanations on Quartal Voicing and can only echo other comments about how informative and clear the teaching is. There are some explanations about jazz concepts that leave me more confused than when I started. This guy is excellent. Hope to see more from him.
Thanks Dan!
Excellent video, very good teacher! I love quartal progression that move up/down chromatically, sounds so fresh and cool.
Yeah, 4ths are cool because they are ambiguous and tend to weaken the tonal center.
great lesson! thank you!!
Beautiful analysis ! Right in front of my nose ! Thanks !
I Love this !
Great lesson!!!
Wonderful lesson.....great theory!
this is soooo helpful, thanks a lot!
Glad it was helpful!
Great vid! (as usual). Love the way you explain everything so methodically. I still need to brush up on my skills before I'll be able to tackle this one though. Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays & a merry Christmas!
As always...brilliant...thank you...
Precise and concise. Thank you.
***** You're welcome Ricardo.
Nice sounding voicing thx!
Thank you very much!
Sure thing.
It's interesting the comparison that you make between the m9th chord and the quartal in the opening minutes of the lesson. Harmonic ambiguity - that's why I love playing around with the quartal voicings
Great explanation,
simple
thanks
You're welcome.
You are great, so usefull!
Do one on the tritone!!! Thanks so much for your tutorials, your way of teaching and on screen musical notation constructions are simply wonderful!! Regards~ #TM
Thanks!
Modes + quartal voicing = so what ja ja ja
I really THANK You for taking Time ti explane this i hoy something ,but sadly i could not download the sheet
@Rick Darnell Ware: Have a look at the video's description. There's a link there to the PDF file.
The PDF looks garbled. see www.dropbox.com/s/tzbfn1hb0p9o359/Screenshot%202018-12-16%2012.42.25.png?dl=0 But thank you for all the good videos! I wish I knew what name to call you when commenting. Is there a name you would like people to use or think of when referring to you?
Great voicing for maj. lt. 3-6, rt. 2-5-8 thanks.
Yes these are beautiful chords. When you say they defy characterization the only thing I can come up with is a feeling of suspended animation. What's actually happening (I think) is that you're playing both minor and major at the same time. C - Eb - F (substitution for g) against Bb- Eb - G (Eb third inversion).
The chord has such a beautiful stretching feeling to it where both minor and major can occupy the same space without clashing.
Thank you again.
My pleasure.
Thanks
I think these chords really lend themselves well to thinking about the top voice of the chord. I first learned chords with the 3rd and 7th on bottom with extensions on the top. That was a good base to build from for me, but I often found my voice-leading to be lacking. These don't always have those guide tones in the left hand, but they tend to make it much easier to make melodic and cohesive comping choices.
Thanks for this great video; the feel of the chords inspired me greatly in my research. Just my two cents : 11m chords, even built from thirds, are already ambiguous because Cm11, for example, contains 2 minor triads (C-Eb-G,G-Bb-D) and 2 major triads (Eb-G-Bb,Bb-D-F). I guess the fact fourths are much closer to their just intonation than any thirds is part of why chords mainly made of them sound great...
great stuff
subbed, great video!
Thanks a lot man! this video is gold! :)
Kunde Hey I'm not called the ManGOLDproject for nothing :).
I really like using this type of quartal voicing with a sort of quartal and tertial hybrid. The C-11 voicing you used can also be expanded up into F Bb Eb G Bb if you want the 7th on top or up further into Bb Eb G Bb D if you want the 9th on top. Both of those voicings have doubled notes, which some may say is a no-no, but they're both are specifically designed to emphasize the soprano voice and the 3rd/4th structure is strong, so they sound good to my ears.
This is top stuff!
Thank you Jerome.
Thanks for the video. You always seem to achieve such a clean sound. Do you compose at all? Be cool to hear.
Thank you so simple when you know how ..georgie
These voicings are popular in modern progressive jazz piano.
So intérêts ING and well exploitée. Congratulations. What about 2 5 1 progression in quartal voicing ? Manu thanks. Louis
The one for quartal harmony.
Awesome video!!!!! Could you possibly do a video demonstrating Quartal Chord Voicings in a ii-v-i situation? major or minor?
That's a really good idea! I'm adding it to my "idea notebook". Thanks Derrell!
Thank you!!!!! I really appreciate it.
Yours is by far one of the top tier explanations on the Internet for this crucial jazz concept. Now here's a question; how does the solo pianist implement the voicings? seems that in the context of the solo piano there would be limitations on the practical application because of their tonal ambiguity - and because the keyboardist has to keep up a bass line for a tonal reference. Thank you for discussing this
That really depends on the context (damn I hate those kinds of replies :) ). Not all solo piano work requires a bass line for tonal reference. Often it is the lack of tonal reference that makes a piece appealing (think modal music). One option is to go for these "block chords" where you play both the chords and the melody in the right hand, and accompany it by the same chord in the left hand. In short, I don't have a universal answer, it's something I can only say on a case by case basis.
I would be using these voicings more in comping than when playing solo
Another great tutorial, keep up the good job and Merry Christmas. FYI the PDF link to the cheat sheet is broken.
Thanks for alerting me to this. (I think) I fixed the link. Please let me know if it's still broken. Merry Christmas!
Then the rigid rules of traditional harmony, such as the prohibition of parallel fifths and octaves. Are doubling thirds and hundreds of prohibitions used in jazz harmony?
One of the things I'm still figuring out is ..... do the pros usually voice out four notes in the right hand? And if that is the case is the practice common to do that top note a M3rd above ( So What chord )?
I adore this one, it remimnds me of a piano solo from Maynard Ferguson's 'The World of Maynard Ferguson'!!! 1970!!
Yeah, these voicings are almost a "standard". You can find them all over the place (e.g. Bill Evans' piano in the intro of "So What" in the Kind of Blue album).
please make a jamming video about it please! That would be awesome! +MangoldProject
Great introduction to quartal voicings, but where is the website to download the .pdf "cheat sheet"?
Check out the video's description.
6:00 that's a weird one. Like a C6/9 with a 7th in there. EDIT: after watching further along it's talked about (and more easily understood) as a maj 9 with a thirteenth. Makes more sense that way.
Hi really enjoyed the quartal voicing video but how do I find your pdf sheet went to your website and couldn't find it but I have to admit I'm not great with PC technology..
georgie
Hi Georgie. If you read the video's description which appears just below the video (click on "Show More" to expand) you will find a link to the PDF "cheat sheet" with the voicings taught in the video. Hope that helped!
I would like to become very proficent in My playing, so what suggestions would You give Me. What should I practice & how ?
It's important to set up a steady routine of technique exercises. Working through, say, The Virtuoso Pianist by Hanon is a safe choice (although there are others): slowly practice with a metronome and add more exercises with time. The harder part is practicing theory and accumulating musical ideas. This really requires listening to - and imitating - music that you love. If you like jazz, transcribe and play piano solos from your favorite albums, read & watch youtube videos like crazy, and find other musicians to play with if possible. I'm going to make a couple of videos on practicing in the not-distant-future so I hope I'll be able to expand on this important topic further. Meanwhile, persistence and having fun are key!
First example is a So What chord, right? That last interval between Eb and G is a 3rd, not a fourth.
I really enjoy your videos, but I can find the pdf files to download?
+Rick Darnell Ware www.assaftal.com/QuartalHarmon...
Great vid. Long story short, use the quartal stack (two scale intervals between each tone) off the 3rd or 7th of your chord. Excellent! Weird though because it really starts to blend the quartal harmonies with the standard thirds. Works wonderfully for major scales though, as it omits the fourth (funny enough, since I usually start on the root and focus on that tone [lydian or ionian]... this method cuts it out of the substitutions all together, adding to that "ambiguity" he talks about). 11:13 "C maj 9 with a 6..." beautiful. So colorful... every note but the 4th!! And the dissonance between the 'root and 7th, 9th,' as well as the '6th between 5th and 7th' is unusual and hypnotizing.
Around 3:00 sounds a lot like the intro to Diana Krall's Almost Blue
thankyou very match i love jazz man always i am here to listen your hints
*sory for the bad english i am brazilan kkkkkkk
nil felix Thanks Felix! And peace and hello to all my Brazilian viewers :).
thankyou very match se ya !!!
please could you put on a song where these chords are being applied? it would be much appreciated.than you.
Evans Uzor Bill Evans was a big user. I think I mentioned the intro to "Kind of Blue" as an example. Can't really think of any other very specific examples I'm afraid ... (viewers who can should feel free to chip in)
In your opinion, would these voicings sound out of place in a classic swing tune? Are they too modern for the style?
They should work fine for "classic" swing.
Thanks ,very clear;but which kind of musik can i do ? Fabio
Hi Fabio. Are you asking which type of music does this harmony fit with? If so, then I'd say jazz (obviously), film scoring, and anything that's more sophisticated than your basic pop/rock voicing. For example, Steely Dan used a lot of interesting chord voicings - quartal voicings included - in many of their songs.
MangoldProject Thanks for your quick answer.I apologize myself for my poor english:i am italian,i live in Milan. i am 70.I would like to see you to play somethings with quartal voicing in a piano tutorial. Thanks again Fabio
fabio pattarino
I'll definitely add that to the video tutorial queue. Meanwhile, have a listen to Kind of Blue: Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue [Album Completo]. In the first song (starting at around 40 seconds) Bill Evans, the pianist, uses one of the 7th (dominant) quartal voicings.
Thank you for the lesson :) the sheet is all jumbled and doesn’t work though :(
I'm having trouble finding and printing out the pdf files from your site, can you help?
Hi Eugene. The link works for me. It's in PDF format, meaning you'll need a PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat's PDF Reader, or Sumatra PDF. Once you install one of those, the PDF link should open.
Thank you for posting this very clear video. Just a little comment about our (unavoidable) bl***y C Maj chord @ 5:43". Actually it's the exact same as Emin11. In other words it's got the same sound (and structure) as the first Cmin11 you exposed in the beginning. It's just a major third up. In other words they're perfectly interchangeable. I'll continue watching. Thanks again, I'll subscribe.
What language is this pdf in? Hello
Also really fun to throw out all guidelines and go strictly all 4ths stacked on top of each other and do runs with as well, lots of ambiguity because it's very atonal and our westernized ears think it's wrong.
The 5th in C miner could be moved to the bottom. It becomes 5-1-4-7b and 3b.
Thanks Ming, that's a great observation. With the new voicing you get all fourths. Whether or not you actually want that ... well, that depends on the context as always :). I find that I usually prefer some amount of tonality in my voicings, so I tend to keep a major/minor third or a tritone in there somewhere.
Thanks for your comment. The minor third on top of the chord sounds great. But all fourths just provide an extra approach. Love your videos. Do you have a facebook account?
No, I never got on the Facebook wagon. I was thinking of making one specifically for this youtube channel but can't seem to find the time to actually do it ...
Are you pro musician doing a lot of gigs or a jazz enthusiast/teacher?
Ming Zhang
I've never been a pro. I made some money as a part-time session player a few years back, but I'm really just a piano enthusiast and I like teaching.
Do you have a lesson on triad pairs?
Not sure what you mean by that. Probably not.
oh you mean chord progressions...
if you are a beginner(if not then forgive me) then check out his 2-5-1 series videos they are awesome
He probably means polychords
chords "SO WHAT" Cm11
Also that pdf link is broken
Really? It works for me, I just clicked on it ... :(
A perfect example of quartal voicing: czcams.com/video/PXI5sWDdqtU/video.html
Thank you for checking. Apparently, I had a weak WiFi connection.
Great, glad to know it sorted itself out for you.
Hmm that was a fourth , it wasnt perfect ,but i dont know how to call it in english
After trying for several years to learn piano I came across Turbo Piano Secret and it seems to be the best home study method (check it out on google)
So what?
Why don't You put out a book or dvd to help those who wish to learn ?
Once you start selling DVDs you have to scale up the operation, start worrying about customer support, payment options, production values - I'm just too lazy to deal with those things ... maybe one day?