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Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
(MED. SWING ♩=80 )
4
Jazz Piano · The Minimal LH Voicing
Bud Powell Left Hand
Root + ♭7 (or root + 3) two-note voicings, ii-V-I in twelve keys
Play exercise
Bud Powell's left hand: two notes, no more. Root and
♭7 on most chords; root and natural 7 on
major 7 chords (where the ♭7 wouldn't fit the quality). The LH
stays out of the RH's way, giving the right hand maximum space
for fast bebop lines.
For ii-V-I in C: D + C (Dm7) →
G + F (G7) → C + B (Cmaj7).
Three two-note voicings. Each one identifies the chord's
quality (♭7 for minor/dom, 7 for maj7) without committing to
its full harmonic profile. The bass note grounds; the upper
note characterises.
ii / V (m7 / dom) Root + ♭7. Two notes, identifies dominant function.
I (maj7) Root + 7. Powell also used root + 10th, but a blocked 10th is out of most hands' reach.
Jump to
C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B E A D G
C
3
2
X
O
O
O
2
1
1
X
X
O
D
m
7
G
7
3
2
1
O
O
O
F
3
2
1
X
X
O
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
G
m
7
C
7
3
2
4
1
O
O
B
1
3
2
4
X
X
C
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
E
1
2
3
4
X
X
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
B
7
1
2
1
3
1
X
A
1
1
1
3
X
X
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
E
7
1
3
2
4
X
X
D
4
3
1
1
1
X
E
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
A
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
4fr
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
A
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
D
7
2
3
1
4
X
X
B
1
3
2
4
X
X
C
m
7
4
2
1
X
O
O
F
7
1
3
1
2
1
1
E
3
1
2
O
O
X
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
B
7
2
1
3
4
X
O
A
2
1
3
X
O
O
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
2
1
O
O
O
O
E
7
D
1
2
3
X
X
O
2
O
O
O
O
O
E
m
7
1
3
X
O
O
O
A
7
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
2
1
X
O
O
O
A
m
7
2
1
3
X
X
O
D
7
The Daily Drill
The leanest left hand
5 min Play one key very slowly. Two notes per chord. The lower note (root) grounds the chord; the upper note (♭7 or 7) tells you what quality it is. Nothing else. 10 min Cycle three keys. Compared to the shell exercise (#1), this adds the root underneath. Compared to rootless voicings (#3), it strips out the 5 and 9. The middle ground: two notes. 4 min Improvise a fast bebop line in the RH while the LH plays this voicing. Notice how much room the RH has — the LH only occupies two notes deep in the bass range, leaving the entire treble open for the line. 3 min Listen to Bud Powell's recording of Tempus Fugit or Hallucinations . The LH is doing exactly this voicing throughout. The RH is the show; the LH is the engine. When to use which (and when to drop the LH entirely) Bud Powell-style two-note LH is the right tool when you're playing without a bass player (unaccompanied piano, or trio with drums + horn but no bass). When a bassist IS present, drop the root from the LH and play rootless voicings (exercise #3) instead — the bassist owns the root, and your LH is freed up to add the 5 and 9 for fuller harmony. The two-note Powell voicings, the four-note rootless Bill Evans voicings, and the two-note shells (#1) are all answers to the same question — "what's the smallest LH that identifies the chord?" — under three different bass-line conditions.
Two notes, every chord, every key. The LH that powered the entire bebop revolution.