Jazz School: Chord Voicings: Minor 7 Basic

Let’s begin our exploration of commonly-used chord voicings for a C Minor 7th chord with the most basic arrangement of notes…

Minor 7 Chord Basic Voicing

Root (1) in the left hand and stacked thirds (1-b3-5-b7) in the right…

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 School: Chord Voicings: Minor 7 Left Hand Block