You probably already know some Jazz Chords, Drop2 or Drop3 voicings, or Shell-voicings, and those systems are really great to build a vocabulary. But sometimes you want to play some different chords that sound really beautiful and a little more surprising to the ear so that you don’t make the song boring.
Those voicings are what this video is about!
Some of these chords are a little stretchy, but as you will hear, they are worth the effort, just don’t start by playing them in the 1st position.
I am going to introduce them in chord progressions because I think that is how they are the easiest to hear, but you can of course also use them one a single chord vamp.
#1 – Beautiful m7(9,11) Upper-structure Triad
Upper-structure Triads
These 3 voicings really fit well together and they are all using upper-structure triads, something that makes them sound both colorful and strong.
The Am7 is a C and a G major triad which gives us 3rd, 11th, 7th and 9th
Here I am combining it with a D7(13b9) and a G6/9
The D7 uses a B major upper-structure and the G uses an Asus4 triad as an upper-structure, and this is something that you will see throughout the video.
Any Easy Way To Be Creative With These Chords
Arpeggiating chords
Turning it into a Maj7 chord
In the later examples, you will also see that a lot of these voicings can be used for different chords, and in that way they are a very practical way to increase your chord vocabulary.
The Am7 voicings is also great as a tonic chord in C major, even though it does not have a 3rd.
Here it is a more modern sounding Cmaj7 in this II V I with a tritone substitution.
#2 – Close-voiced Maj7(9,13)
This vamp is using the Cmaj7(9,13) voicing which is 7th,9th,3rd,13th and then alternating that with a Bb7, the backdoor dominant.
Notice that this Cmaj7(9,13) also works as a G6/9 which was how I used it in Example 1
There it is 3rd 5th 6th and 9th.
#3 – Dom7(13b9) the most beautiful Dominant sound
The 13b9 sound on a dominant is one of my favorites. It is a great mix of an altered and unaltered sound which I find really rich.
Here I am using that on a II V I in F major, mixing it with a Gm7(11) and an Fmaj7(9,13)
The C7(13b9) is a voicing with an A major triad as upper-structure which is also a part of why it sounds so stable while still working as a dominant.
Another great way to use this same type of voicing is as a diminished chord. You can do that like this on “The Song Is You”
Here it becomes a Dim(b6) but you can also move it around to get to other extensions.
#4 – The Magic Chord – The Maj(b5)
Can you hear it? It is the sound of the #11 Police coming to get us for notating this chord as a Maj(b5) – Clip from Mad Max
You are probably using this set of notes, but using it in this voicing is really a great sound and it is so incredibly flexible.
In this example, I am using it as both a tonic minor chord and a half-diminished chord.
First, an F#ø(11) which leads into a B7(13b9) using another version of the Ab major upper-structure and continuing to an Em6/9 played with two different voicings.
#5 – Dom7th(#5)
The Dom7(#5) chord is a great voicing for melodic minor sounds, and you can make some really beautiful sounds with the inversions as I do in this example, where it is used on the II chord in a minor II V I in Am.
But you can also use it for the tonic minor chord and use the same type of fill like this:
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