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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 )
1
Jazz Piano · Shell Voicings
The Cycle
ii–V–I through all twelve keys, with guitar comping diagrams
Play exercise
Every chord here is a shell : just the 3rd and 7th,
the two notes that define the chord's quality. The root is implied
(the bass player has it). With only two notes per chord, the voice
leading from one chord to the next becomes obvious — usually one
voice moves a half step, the other holds.
The shells alternate type as you change chords.
That alternation is the whole trick: hold one voice, move the other.
The guitar fret diagrams above each chord show full comping voicings
so a guitarist can play along.
Shell A 3rd on bottom, 7th on top.
Shell B 7th on bottom, 3rd on top.
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
2
3
1
4
X
X
D
7
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
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
E
7
2
1
O
O
O
O
D
1
2
3
X
X
O
E
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
A
7
1
3
X
O
O
O
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
A
m
7
2
1
X
O
O
O
D
7
2
1
3
X
X
O
The Daily Drill
Twenty minutes , every day
5 min Key 1 only (C). Metronome ♩ = 70. Loop until the voice leading is effortless, then bump to 90. 10 min Three keys at a time from the cycle, slow. Don't sprint through twelve keys badly — drill three keys well. 3 min Hands-off voice tracking: play through one key very slowly, watching which voice moves at each chord change. Half the work is the ear. 2 min Free play — comp the shells under a tune you know (Autumn Leaves , Blue Bossa , All The Things You Are ) so the harmonic vocabulary lives in real music, not just in cycles. A note on the descent If you play the cycle continuously (without resetting between keys), the voice leading will pull you down about an octave by the time you reach G major. In real playing, "reset" the voicings up an octave every three or four keys. The grid above shows each key at a comfortable register — they don't connect to each other.
Shells are two-part counterpoint between the 3rd and 7th. Same physics as resolving a leading tone in a chorale — just on the keyboard.