Jazz School: Chord Voicings: Dominant 7 “Triad Over Root”

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A commonly-used voicing for a Dominant Seventh Chord is to play the root in your left hand and the triad formed by the 3, 5, and b7 in your right…

One might conceive of this C7 voicing as Edim/C…

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

learn more… Jazz Chords: Dominant 7 Root Plus Definitive Tones