3/7 Voicings

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The voicings shown above are perhaps the most common voicings used by pianists since the 1960's. I call them 3/7 voicings because they are based on the third and seventh of the chord. The first three voicings above have the third on the bottom, while the second three have the seventh on the bottom. The third and seventh have already been observed to be the most important notes in a chord from a functional standpoint, so in fact these two notes alone can suffice to convey a chord:

[EXAMPLE]

Usually, however, these voicings are filled out with additional notes from the scale corresponding to the chord:

[EXAMPLE]

The sixth and ninth generally provide more color than the fifth or root. Usually, a bassist will be playing roots and fifths, and 3/7 voicings balance this well:

[EXAMPLE]

When these voicings are applied to altered dominant chords, then the corresponding notes in the voicing are altered as well. For example, a C7#9 chord might be played as:

[EXAMPLE]

While a C7+ might be played:

[EXAMPLE]

When using 3/7 voicings in a ii-V-I progression, or any other progression that includes root movement by fourth, smooth voice leading is achieved by alternating between voicings with the third on the bottom and voicings with the seventh on the bottom:

[EXAMPLE]

Note how the third of one voicing resolves to the seventh of the next, and vice versa, and all the notes either stay the same or resolve by step. This is good voice leading. However, note also this tends to result in voicings sliding down in range:

[EXAMPLE]

Therefore, after a few rounds of this, it is usually a good idea to make a jump back upwards when possible:

[EXAMPLE]

Like the skeleton voicings discussed in the previous section, pianists often play these voicings in their left hands to accompany a melodic line played in the right hand:

[EXAMPLE]

3/7 voicings may also be extended into two-handed voicings for keyboard players when accompanying other soloists or as punctuation during their own solos. An effective way to do this is to take a note from the corresponding scale that is not already in the voicing and add it in octaves in the right hand:

[EXAMPLE]

The note a fourth or fifth above this note may be added as well:

[EXAMPLE]

This playing of the top note of the voicing in octaves is the only doubling that is normally advisable in 3/7 voicings. In general, it is a good idea to avoid excessive doubling of notes in voicings. Doubled notes add no extra color, and they tend to make the voicing sound imbalanced:

[EXAMPLE]

Because 3/7 voicings do not typically contain roots, and because they tend to be played toward the middle of the keyboard rather than toward the bottom, these voicings do not provide a full sound by themselves. The chapters on Accompanying discuss some ways of using rootless voicings in combination with other approaches to achieve a balanced sound in the absence of a bass player.

Note that guitarists playing these voicings often extra notes above the third and seventh rather than between them, so as to keep the spacing between the notes manageable. Voicings with several close intervals can often be difficult to play on guitar. Here is how a guitarist might play some of these voicings:

[EXAMPLE]

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

3/7 Voicings