Chordal Instruments

• Examples
• Roles

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

Examples

Chordal instruments are instruments that can play chords. That is, they can play more than one note at a time. Instruments in this category include piano:

Organ:

Vibraphone and marimba:

Guitar:

And banjo:

Roles

These instruments are often found accompanying the melodic instruments. Because they are capable of playing chords, they are usually called upon to provide harmonic support for the melody instruments. Most commonly, they take the chords, decide which specific notes to include from them, and play them in some sort of rhythmic pattern, as in the piano in the following example:

Chordal instruments are often offered a chance to solo as well. When they do so, these instruments often tend to accompany themselves:

It is somewhat unusual to have more than one instrument from this category in a group, except for the guitar, which is often used in conjunction with another chordal instrument. Often the guitar is functioning more as a melody instrument than a chordal one in these cases:

The chordal instruments, bass instruments, and percussion instruments often work together to provide accompaniment. This combination of instruments is called a rhythm section. Traditionally, in jazz, the chordal instrument relies on the bass and percussion to maintain the momentum. A piano or guitar player may then play as sparsely as he wishes:

When a chordal instrument is providing accompaniment without the benefit of bass or percussion, the player often takes on the roles of the missing instruments as well. In the following example, a horn player is accompanied by a pianist only, and the pianist is playing more bass notes and providing the momentum by himself to compensate:

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Chordal Instruments