Rootless voicings

Filed in Free Lessons on May 12, 2009



Today's lesson will be brand new to most of you.  It covers rootless voicings, which is a technique used by pianists when they are accompanying other musicians or vocalists.

First of all, let's define the terms.  I talk a lot about voicing but in case you do not remember, voicing refers to the position on the keyboard where notes in a chord are played.  Review this lesson for more information and examples.

When I say rootless, I mean playing chords without the root (bottom note of the chord).  If you are playing a rootless C7 chord, you might play E, G, Bb.  You can change those notes a bit as I will discuss in a minute.

Why would you play a rootless chord?  The primary reason is stay out of the way of other instruments who are playing roots (such as a bass guitar, an upright bass, or even an organ).  If they are playing the roots, you don't have to.

Playing rootless voicings avoids conflicts with those instruments.  After all, we are all trained to play inversions.  If you need to play a C7 chord, a bass player is likely to play a C, E, or G.  If you don't know exactly what he is going to do, you may play a different inversion and clash with him.  In a typical church service, this happens a lot between piano and organ or piano and bass guitar.

Rootless voicings are played around middle C in the left hand.  Actually, you should try fitting them into the octave below middle C.  In many cases, they will creep up into the octave above middle C.  Let your ear be the guide as to the best place to position them.  Just don't go down low enough to conflict with the instruments playing bass.

Now, some of you are undoubtedly intimidated by this concept, but it is not as difficult as you think.  There are essentially two different formulas for these voicings and they are sometimes referred to as A and B.

In A voicings, you play from bottom to top these notes:

Major 7th and Minor 7ths: 3, 5, 7, 9
Dominants: 3, 5, 7, 9 or 3, 13, 7, 9

For dominants, note that I gave you two options--including either the 5 or the 13 (6th).  Using the 13 is more modern and interesting, but if you can't bring yourself to do it, play the 5 instead. 

Here are examples:



In B voicings, you play from bottom to top these notes:

Major 7th and Minor 7ths: 7, 9, 3, 5
Dominants: 7, 9, 3, 13 or 7, 9, 3, 5

Here are examples:



Note the position on the keyboard of these voicings.  They are higher than the others, but do not sound right if you drop them down an octave.  In general, keep all of the notes above the C below middle C.

As you can imagine, learning to play these voicings will take some time but not as much as you think.  You have to get to the point where you play them instinctively for every chord.

So what do you do with the right hand? Anything you want--melody, patterns, counter melodies, whatever.  We will talk about that at some other point. 

What you will find is that if you play in this way, more things sound right.  If I do not know a song well, I tend to play rootless and leave the critical roots to someone else.  For example, if playing with a male quartet with a strong bass, I stay out of the way and let him sing roots.  That keeps me from having to anticipate what inversions he is going to sing.



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Thomas Tyrell
5/12/2009 1:23:24 PM

OK, that makes sense. I have seen those kinds of chords other places and wondered how in the world you could call something a C7 if it did not have a "C" in it.

But, for most of us, it is hard enough to do the chords with the roots much less this way. I am very intimidated by concepts like this.

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Robin Friedman
5/12/2009 4:10:43 PM

Well, I don't get it. If you look at a chord, the root has to be in it. So those chords cannot be C chords. They have to be named wrong.

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Danny Gardner
5/13/2009 10:57:09 AM

Well Robin you have to keep in mind that this is a rather different situation. The root is there, but someone else is playing it. Probably a bass guitar or an organ like Mr. Howlett pointed out. So since the root is implied you can still name those chords C chords. It takes awhile to get used to it but it definitely can be learned. For example: the second Cmin7 voicing here could also be interpreted as an Ebmaj7, but since C is the root here (again, it's being played by another instrument don't worry) you have to call it some kind of C chord. In this case its a Cmin7 (really a Cmin9 I believe). I hope I helped you understand a little.

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Ron
6/29/2010 9:52:26 AM

this was a good lesson and I have a question: suppose I play an inverted triad/rootless chord in a band situation, can i play the same chord with the right hand? I know could just play the melody note but what if I want to play a chord? i look forward to hear from you.

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Greg
6/29/2010 11:43:14 AM

Sure you can but it is more typical to play melodies and such in the right hand.

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Benedict D'silva
4/3/2011 4:17:53 PM

Classical pianists its high time you get some good jazz theory books and understand these concepts.. probably its on the DVDs that Greg has... or you will never understand concepts as rootless shell voicings or drop 2 technic or modal harmony and quartal harmony... I'm from Mumbai India and we don't have a college which teaches Western music... we have to learn form private instructors and I've learnt form books.... Its great to have video instrucion like this...

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Blossom
8/23/2011 3:38:22 AM

Classical pianist play music at the composers level and depending on the virtuostic level of a composition it takes time for them to master a difficult work. Their training and rigor takes great deal of effort. Hence they get very little time to explore other forms of music. On a similar level it is an enormous task for non classical or pop pianist to play music from written out scores they lack discipline in that area due to constant improvisation and other skills.It is what one wants to do and the goals they set for themselves. A classical pianist (purist) may not be interested in doing jazz and improvisational music not because they don like it is because they have no time.
and they may not be interested in doing it. I like listening to JAZZ and Pop but I dont want to play. Iam a Classical Concert Pianist and Professor of Piano in prestigious conservatory. I also teach Church music and worship music in a Baptist Seminary.

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Benedict D'silva
8/23/2011 3:40:08 PM

Its true Classical pianists play at a very advanced level though sometimes I wonder what the composer would have thought if he saw different renditions of the same piece by concert pianists...A great deal goes into practising and achieving success.I think that one has to be musician first not just an instrumentalist. Here in our city some people who play classical music can't even play a song with the 3 primary triads let alone which register to play it and so you get block chords in the lower bass register or cheap careless arpeggios.And one must be able to create music not just keep on only playing the great masters alone.
If Chopin for example only played Beethoven then we wouldn't have his music today.How much of classical music has been studied to adapt something of it in our own music?
What would a classical pianist do if there was just a chord chart available of say hymns?
And a lot of study goes into playing Jazz. One has to know what to play and where.chords and modes and other jazz scales along with various rhythms have to be played in a solo or band context on the spot.

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Blossom
8/26/2011 1:43:39 AM

Good insight you seem to be a very talented musician it is sad some of your pianist cant do simple task of musicianship. Your thoughts on this subject is indeed thought provoking. Having said that classical pianist do not wish to do other thing simply because they have no time to pursue other areas of musical disciplines. At any American universities Christian or secular an undergraduate student has to play several large works including concertos with an Orchestra in their performance major.This takes lot of effort and rigor

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