Monday, June 13, 2011

Intermediated Jazz Piano Brain Tease #3

This brain tease is not so advanced as previous Brain Teaser posts #1 and #2,  but still challenges the brain to think and apply voicing theory.  For jazz players this should be done in all keys without printed music up a couple octaves and down a couple octaves at a slow steady tempo.    The first  series below is a set of inversions of open voicings  of a C half-diminished chord ( Cm7(b5)) and the second series incorporates a logical resolution of each of the voicings from the first series.   It is simply the  chord progression:   ii,V7  in Minor.    The ii chord in minor is m7(b5).   To visualize the open voicings you could think of the closed voicing stacked up from the bottom note,  then move the middle two notes up an octave.  Or you could imagine the closed voicing from the top note stacked down, then move the 3rd voice down an octave ( " drop 3 " it might be called ).  When doing an exercise like this it is important to always keep in mind the degree of the chord that is on the top and on the bottom, and be able to sing all the notes so that this becomes ear training and not simply an intellectual exercise.  This particular study is an extremely useful addition to the vocabulary of solo jazz piano.   It can be generalized to other types of chords as well.      

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