You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 3 Steps To Better Voicings

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

In this episode, Adam and Peter reveal three essential steps to making your voicings better. From comping to writing new tunes these steps will come in handy sooner than you think. Unlock your FREE Open Studio trial to become a better player today.Check out Aaron Park's course only on Open StudioMeditations on Jazz Piano 🧘‍♂️⛓️ Chord Connectors ⛓️ - The Short - The GPSHave a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Peter, here's step one. Step two would be, and step three. Matt Amanis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily of jazz advice coming at you. Coming at you to be sponsored by Open Studio. Fancy flourish.

Go to openstudiojazz.com to start your free trial today. Peter, you know, producer Caleb last week, he talked to me out of going back to the theme song after we were doing the playing. And I thought it was kind of a good idea, but I do miss the theme song. theme song's great. I know. Got to just a little bit up here. Ah, I feel better. It's like a shower of goodness. Right. It's a security blanket. A little hutch coming up. We heard from some of our dear listeners that

they missed it too. So, Caleb, you can fight with them if you want, but there it is. It should be daily hutch advice coming at you. You know what I mean? So good. Right, right. So, Peter, today we're talking about three steps to better voicings. One is to splash around, which I'm going to explain what that means. That comes from the great Aaron Parks. Good, because I still don't know what this is. means. So I'm ready to learn, sir. Two is to play melodically, which I know you're thinking, that doesn't make sense. We're talking about harmony, but it, trust me, it works. And the third step to better voicing is to use a variety of intervals. Peter, let me tell you a story about maybe

a beginner pianist or maybe a, you know, a pianist who can play triads and knows some traditional harmony, but they don't really play any jazz piano. Right. And then sort of one day they hear this sound and they light up. They realize that maybe there's like a harmonically rich. There's a jazzy sound of some kind of flavor to it. And actually, Peter, a lot of our, a lot of our YouTube people and a lot of our members, especially beginners, have told us that like chords like this C major seven, which is just a stack of thirds, C, E, G, and B, this brought them into sort of the jazier fold, right? I was like wanting to explore some richer harmonize. A lot of smarty pants, pianists out there.

a lot of these people here. And so, like, if you were to do a basic 25 with this, right, you would do like a D minor 7, D-F, A, C, and then maybe like a G-7 and an inversion and the C major, right? All these stacks of thirds.

And there's nothing. Jazz piano. Root position. Yeah, it's the very foundations. But if you wanted to kind of, like, take it to the next level, there's some steps you can do. And I love what Aaron Park said in his recent course, meditations on jazz piano.

And actually, I think I've heard this from, we had, I believe it was Kevin Hayes on, on one of our mentor sessions, talked about, like, if they're gonna play C major, they're gonna think about the available notes being this. All of the notes of the C major scale to build their harmony. And so you can actually splash around using

all of these notes, all of the white keys from C to C to build chords, like a C major chord, right? Yeah, but you're choosing really cool combinations. Well, no, no, I'm, well, this is, we're gonna explain that in steps two and three, here and a little bit. But these are just all of the notes in C major. So if you were to do this, you know, this is like

what Aaron Parks calls splashing around, right? Where you're just kind of like and of course there's the F is in here which makes it kind of a suspended sound. So you can just get rid of the F. Everything else is fair game. And it's as you're doing this to listen. How does it change when you add the F in? The F is actually hip.

You know what I mean? So like creating harmonies. It's not right or wrong. It's just different. There's no right or wrong, buddy. So this is just kind of splashing around using shapes of your hand. I've got C on the bottom, but if you're to do the D minor 7, you can splash around again, just all in C, all diatonically, right? Just all in those seven notes. So theoretically, this could be the exact same splashes from the C major.

Just with D as the root. Yeah. So if you know your major scales, like if you know the E flat major scale and you want to play a B flat seven, you can just use all of those notes. I'm literally, I'm just picking and choosing notes in the key of E flat. right there's no real rhyme or reason i mean i kind of have intuition because i can practice this technique of splashing around but this is a great way to just like realize there's no you know we want to have voices moving voice leading we want to have great voice leading but to start there's a way to

just experiment by splashing in the puddles of the harmony i think it's a great analogy to just say i'm just going to splash around here when you hear Aaron barks Aaron parks do this on his course it's like the most beautiful thing yeah he's splashing it in like the cleanest It's like Evian water that's been put into the cleanest streets of gold, and then he's splashing around. It's beautiful. Well, this is good. Thanks for cleaning this up because I kind of used to mess. I remember messing around with this in different keys when I first started learning.

But you splash around all the time. I hear you do this all the time. I just never heard you call it because when you said splash around, I immediately thought of this. Oh, Peter. So this sounds very. Jump around, Peter. Oh, that's jump around. Jump around.

How's a pain. Jump around. Come on, bud. Okay. Back on track. So number one is to splash around That's literally to like realize what are your What's your color palette of notes

And then just kind of possibilities Yeah possibilities I think Herbie Hancock is a classic splasher When we heard him here He loves to splash him All that stuff is really kind of splashing on diminished right? Yes Halfhole diminished

He's the king of splashing The next thing that I think you'll hear Most people who are really great compers And really great with Harmony do Is play melodically with their harmony So what does that mean? So that means not just playing one voicing with no reference to a melody that is sort of the top note

or even the middle or bottom notes of the voicing, but to really think about everything you play as a melody that you're adding to the song. So Peter, in our intro we played Solar. Yes. So maybe if we just did that real quick, if you could just walk a baseline for me and maybe even play a solo with your right hand.

And I'm going to comp some chords here with the road sound. And I'll show you what I mean by playing melodically. We're thinking about the top note of our chord voicing. It's a primary way to think about melodically, although there's plenty of others. But it's not just where that note moves to. It's also a rhythmic approach. It's like you're not just playing chords

just to throw your hands like bricks at the keyboard. Right. Your hands in the air like you just don't care. You're adding a part, right? If we think about again that Mozart Rule of 3, there's a bass line, there's a solo, and then there's a third part. It's the harmony, but the harmony moves

in a melodic way. So let's try it. One, three zones. Two. One, two. So again, you can hear everything I'm doing there is I'm trying to respond

to what Peter's playing melodically and add some things there. But every chord has a direction that I'm playing. So if I'm playing this, it's not just, you know, this little so what voice on a G minor seven.

It's not just in, you know, in service of this. It's going to go somewhere. I'm going to make a phrase out of this and it's going to be like something where it's like, there's a melody to it. If I'm doing like,

I'm thinking about these melodies as I'm comping. Like I'm trying to hear melodies, including the rhythm that happens. That's so great. And, you know, we talk about living a musical life. I would say, like, live a melodic life. So even when we're doing, we're talking about harmony.

It's always like those three simple elements of music, harmony, melody, and rhythm. And you alluded to rhythm being part of this, too, like the rhythmic, element of a melody, right? Like, how are these three things working together? It's almost like a great trio. Like, there's always passing things around and the importance of

the piano bass and drums goes up or down with rhythm, harmony, and melody. When we're thinking about copying, we get stuck too much and like, oh, this is all about the vertical. I love thinking, I mean, not everyone thinks about like this, but I love thinking vertically or horizontally. And then almost like those graphs that are 3D that are going at all the difference.

That's rhythm, harmony, and melody. Like, never let go of the melody. and you're playing 40 chess. Yeah, exactly. So could you cop the baseline, or walk the baseline for me? And so there's another element of that, speaking of like thinking vertically and horizontally.

So just because you're playing chords... Are you saying there's levels to this game? Very much levels. But just because you're playing chords doesn't mean you can add... You can't add single note things to this to help with the melody, right? So again, step two is to play melodically.

Yeah. So as I'm playing chords, I'm also adding single note lines there in between and as part of the harmony. Okay. So you can imagine like a saxophone section playing this and then unison right something like that as they move

you don't have to move everything as one big section you can do you know unison lines so like one two one two three and even just one note there at a time can make such a huge difference in your voice leading and in that sort of melodic uh that sort of melodic uh that sort of melodic uh environment that you're creating around your chords. It's a really useful tool, and it's super easy to do, too. Yeah, just one little note can give the composition or the arrangement, the performance, that melodic vibe. Like, if you just go, but if you just do-da, you know, or do-da, either one gives it that

melodic. It gets you out of that horn. It's so easy. Don't think it has to be this, you know. Totally. I mean, it can be, but just start small with this. Actually, I have a great short that I made. Caleb, could you link to the short called chord connectors?

Cord connectors. Cord connectors. And actually, there's another long-form YouTube video that we have here at Open Studio that is very simple in the way that it talks about those one-note things. So, Peter, our third step to better voicing is to use a variety of intervals. So if we go back to our original C major seven voicing, right? This is the entree into richer harmony, to C-E-G and B. Yep.

One, three, five, seven. It's a stack of thirds, right? It's a third, it's a third, and it's a third. Now, there's nothing wrong with this, but it is a bit of a punch in the face. Like, it's a bit of one flavor. Yeah, it's a little much. Now, if we take our E and we move it up an octave, so you get that. That is the same four notes, right?

Drop two, right? It is dropped two. Same four notes, but it's a totally different sound. Happy seal, happy seal. You know how you can tell if it's dropped two? You know how you can tell if open voicing is dropped two. Take the bottom note and go up in octaves. If it's the second note from the top, it's dropped two.

If we were to do this here, it's hard for me to think about it. And if you were to take the bottom note and go up an octave, that's drop three. So if you had C, B, E, and G. But yeah, that's dropped two. But just that from C, E, G, and B, right? The stack of thirds, moving that E up in octave is so different. It's just wider. You can hear each note clearer, right?

It's just, there's more interesting texture and color. It's even lighter. It almost doesn't feel rooted, although it still is. It's still rooted, but it's just, it's got a, it's got a bit more of a, like, a sophisticated sound to it. And again, nothing wrong with the stack of thirds. It's just different. It's just kind of like... Do you think of that at all as, like, so, like, we've got the triad of the E, that's the E minor trite, and then you're just inverting that triad?

You can think of it. You can, to think about inverse. I think about some of this stuff in different ways all the time. Yeah. But just as we're talking about here, what we're talking about, the variety of intervals. Yeah. And so here you've got a, instead of a stack of thirds,

you've got a fifth, you've got a third, and you got a fourth. So you've got three different intervals in this voicing as opposed to just a stack of thirds. Same notes. And so when we're doing our splashing around, Peter, like if you are splashing around in the key of C and you're just trying to get all the notes in,

experiment with making sure there's different intervals, like fifths and seconds and fourths. Listen to that. I'm just throwing my hands down here at shapes, but they all sound good because I know I'm having, and it's just like different widths of my hand. C major is so good to do this with because you can find all of these different colors, you know. But it makes a huge difference.

One of my favorite voicings that you play, like on a D minor chord, right? So here's like a D minor 9, right? So a beginner might play F, A, C, and E, a stack of... It sounds great, right? No, it's really nice. But Peter Martin takes the A down to the G. So now it's F, G, C, and E. And this turns a stack of thirds into a second, a fourth, and a third.

and it's just got this crispness to it that I absolutely love. It's so beautiful. It's inspiring. I wonder if instead of a stack of flats. So that's our third tip for better voicing is to really just splash around using the different intervals. Try to get fifths and fourth and thirds and all different combinations. Even like Peter, like a fourth voicing, right? So if you had like if you had like this, right?

D, G, C, F, and B. Yeah. Let's just add a third on top instead of the fourth. Right. Now you've got an interesting voice. So what? So, I mean, yeah, this is great. I think one thing I noticed

as you were splashing around the last time that might be helpful for people if they're like, I'm trying that, but it doesn't sound like the way you're doing it, is don't be rigid in your shapes. Yeah. So the manifestation of this could come out, you know, playing melodically,

and for sure, with the diversity of intervals, a variety of intervals. Like if you splash around like this. All on one shape. Yeah, you want to be like boom. No, I'm doing like, what I'm really... So like you physically have to be open to moving your hands around.

And between it too. Yeah. And I'm also thinking like a great like hack for this actually is just to think about the cluster. Where's the cluster? So I'm always going to have a second somewhere. Yeah, yeah. So maybe it's in the middle. Maybe it's at the bottom.

Maybe it's at the top. Nice. This will like really diversify. Where's that cluster, right? The cluster is the second. either the minor or major second. Right. And with that, you drop that down.

That's immediately there. But even on that other voicing, that's why, to me, that's the same thing, the cluster, the one you say you like. Oh, the D minor nine. Right. Which is really a D minor 11 when you drop. D minor 11, yeah.

But then I'll move up to here to, which is even more of a tense kind of cluster, to B. Oh, yeah. And you get some melodic stuff happening in there. Very cool. So our three steps to better voicings. One is to splash around.

I'll splash around. No, it's, Splash around No. Spass around. Splash around. Let's jump around. I mean, it's kind of similar.

Infringe me. What? Sorry. Splash around. Number two is to play melodically. I never interrupt you. Never. I mean,

he interrupts me with 90s hip-hop hits. Number two is to play melodically. Even when you're playing harmonically, make melodies with your chords. Use those chord connectors, those single notes in between. Live a melodically. Life.

Don't just live a harmonic life. It's beautiful. Don't get stuff in your bag. And then number three is to use a variety of intervals. So don't just stack thirds and fourths. Do a mixture of seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths,

and you will have a much cleaner, a much more diverse, much more eclectic sound. Question for you. Yes. Which is your favorite of the three? Right now, I love playing melodically. I think playing melodically is,

to me, is the highest level of musicianship. It's really where, because if you're playing melodically, truly, every voice is a melody. Everything you're doing. If you're able to splash around and every voice has a direction and a place to go, that's some, like,

you know, high level, Keith Jarrett stuff. So to me, that's like the highest level. That's always unattainable, fully. So to me, that's the target. That's the target. But they're all important. All these three steps, all three of them, especially in this order, well, I think help raise your level of voicing.

You know what? Another thing that will raise your level of voicing. Tell me. Adhering to the gala. What's the gala? The gala or the gala? Because I said gala. I don't know what you say. Yeah, one of us has been being dragged, but I always forget which one. It was me for saying gala, but go ahead. Okay. That is the gentleman and ladies agreement, G-A-L-A.

Get it? Ever heard of it? Gala. Familiar with it. Yeah. Yeah, this is when you adhere to your part of the agreement. We just adhere to it. If you're here in the program, we brought the fire. You know what I'm saying?

Hell yeah. So you're still here. Thank you for being here. Go over to the YouTube's, even if you're listening. Check us out. Take a gander. Yeah. Search for, you'll hear it.

Use the punctuation. This is a lot of steps, Peter. Sorry. Nice little orange, um, um, orangutan, it's almost an orangutan orange you have there. This is cool. Yeah, it's clown nose orange. Yeah. But go over there and subscribe to the channel.

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