Voicings
The symbol says which notes. The voicing says where you put them. Same chord, and the difference between a beginner and a record is almost entirely in this second part.
- same notes
- spacing and order
- the arranger part
which styles use it
- Jazz
- Neo-soul
- Gospel
- Film music
In short
A voicing is a decision about how to lay a chord out: which note is at the bottom, how far apart the notes sit, which ones you double and which ones you leave out. The chord symbol does not specify any of that. Two players reading the same chart can produce sounds that share every note and nothing else.
Choosing a voicing is the moment you stop obeying the chart and start arranging. It is also the fastest way to make simple harmony sound expensive.
How to build it
- Close voicing: stack the notes as tightly as possible
Every note within one octave. Full and compact, and below middle C it turns muddy quickly.
- Open voicing: spread them out
Move an inner note up an octave and the chord breathes. This is how most piano parts on records are laid out, and why they sound roomy.
- Shell voicing: leave notes out
Play the root, the third and the seventh, and drop the fifth. Three notes carry the whole chord, and the bass player covers what is missing.
Where you run into this
- In any piano or guitar part that sounds bigger than the number of notes being played.
- In arranging, where the same chord voiced high or low changes which instrument sits on top.
- In mixing, where a badly spaced chord eats the space a vocal needs.
The three side by side
Cmaj7, three ways:
- Close: C E G B, all inside one octave
- Open: C G, then E and B higher up
- Shell: C, E and B, with no fifth at all