Drop 2 Voicings

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When a chord is played with all notes as close together as possible, this is referred to as close position. For example, any of the following inversions of a C7 chord can be considered close position:

[EXAMPLE]

Voicings with wider spaces are considered to be in open position, as in the following examples:

[EXAMPLE]

Drop voicings are formed by taking a close position voicing and dropping one of the notes down an octave. A drop 2 voicing is formed by dropping the second to the top note. Thus, for instance, a C7 chord in root position may be turned into a drop 2 voicing by dropping the G an octave:

[EXAMPLE]

Similarly, a drop 3 voicing would drop the third note from the top:

[EXAMPLE]

Drop voicings are normally formed from ordinary seventh chords or sixth chords, and they do not generally contain any extensions or alterations.

Drop 2 voicings are especially popular among guitarists, because the relatively wide spacing between notes in these voicings usually fits the layout of the guitar better than a simple close position chord or a four note 3/7 voicing. Drop voicings are also popular among big band arrangers when writing for a saxophone section, largely because the differing ranges of the instruments in the section are conducive to the relatively widely spaced intervals of this voicings. Pianists may also use these voicings, but they have no special advantages over any other voicings. Also, they generally require two hands to play and do not contain color tones besides occasionally the sixth, so they are rarely the most interesting choice.

Regardless of the instrument, drop 2 voicings are especially common when harmonizing a melody in block chords. In this device, each melody note is harmonized with a different voicing, and the different voicings are all played in unison with the melody. Any passing tones in the melody may be harmonized with diminished chords. For example, here is a simple melody:

[EXAMPLE]

Here is that melody harmonized with block chords using drop 2 voicings:

[EXAMPLE]

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Drop 2 Voicings