Dominant 7 Chord Voicing: Killer Joe

The super-hip voicing for a Dominant 7th Chord made famous in Benny Golson’s “Killer Joe”…

Dominant 7 Chord “Killer Joe” Voicing

Homework

Using your ears and knowledge of scales and chord structure, “transpose” this voicing to all spellings in three musically-useful patterns:

1. Chromatically Ascending: C > Db > D > Eb > E > F > Gb > G > Ab > A > Bb > B > C.
2. Chromatically Descending: C > B > Bb > A > Ab > G > Gb > F > E > Eb > D > Db > C.
3. Cycle of Dominants: C > F > Bb > Eb > Ab > Db > Gb > B > E > A > D > G > C.

Doing so develops an enormous chord vocabulary that you will know by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle–laying a rock solid foundation for fluent improvisation.

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