Piano Left-Hand Voicings

(In SmartASCII notation)

Jazz pianists commonly play 4-note close voicings with the left hand to accompany a solo in the right hand. This subject is covered thoroughly in Chapters 7 and 8 of Mark Levine's " The Jazz Piano Book ". The overlapping straight fourths/inverted fifths tuning commonly used on on the Stick makes it easy to play these voicings with both hands and add a bass root in the left hand. I usually play a left-hand shell voicing, then add two color tones (usually the 9th, 5th or 13th) with the right hand on the melody side. Here are pages describing some of the most common of these voicings:

1. Shapes
   1. Major
   2. Minor
   3. Dominant
   4. Altered Dominant
   5. Minor Seventh
   6. Half Diminished


2. Progressions with Good Voice Leading

   These are good to accompany a soloist, or melody notes can be added above to create a solo Stick part like this arrangement of "Night and Day".

   1. Major ii-V-I
      1. Root on lowest bass string
      2. Root on second-lowest bass string
   2. Minor ii-V-i
      1. Root on lowest bass string
      2. Root on second-lowest bass string


3. Progressions For Tunes
   1. Autumn Leaves

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Last Updated on 01-30-2010 at 17:24 pm
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