## Two Handed Voicing With So What Chords

A “So What” chord is a particular 5 note voicing played by Bill Evans on the Miles Davis tune entitled “So What”, consisting of 3 stacked 4th’s (perfect or tritone) and a 3rd (major or minor) on top. By going up the diatonic scale, there are 7 possible So What chords for a particular key. The following shows the series of So What chords in the key of C:

Note that the 1st, 2nd and 5th chords are of the same shape (3 perfect 4th’s and a major 3rd), which works very well for:

• Minor seventh chords built from the root
• Major seventh chords built from the 3rd
• Lydian (maj7#11) chords built from the 7th

The 3rd and the 6th chords both contain a minor 9th, which is typically avoided because of its dissonance. Although they may add interesting colors when playing in a long single mode section of a modal tune for example. The 4th and 7th chords on the other hand work very well as voicings for a sus chord. Putting the chord symbols to the above staff for C major we have:

The shape in the 1st, 2nd and 5th chords will be used much more frequently because minor and major seventh chords are much more common than sus chords. To familiarize with this shape, play this voicing and its inversions in all keys around the cycle of fourths:

To help getting familiar with all five inversions for a particular key, some patterns can be recognized if we assign fingerings such that the hand playing 3 notes always holds 2 perfect fourths. Assuming we are playing on a minor seventh chord:

• The root position and the 1st inversion are mirrors of each other because:
• In the root position, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the root, the right hand plays the minor 3rd and the 5th.
• In the 1st inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the root, the left hand plays the minor 3rd and the 5th.
• Using the same idea, the 3rd inversion can be mirror with either the 2nd or the 4th inversion. For the sake of symmetry let’s consider it to be a mirror of the 4th inversion. Then:
• In the 3rd inversion, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 5th, the right hand plays the minor 7th and the minor 3rd.
• In the 4th inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 5th, the left hand plays the minor 7th and the minor 3rd.
• In the 2nd inversion (the median), the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 4th, the right hand starts on the 5th and ends with the root on the very top.

Similar patterns can be recognized when applying So What chords to the other chord types, except the basic position should no longer be called the root position because the root is not present in the voicing. For major 7th chords:

• The basic position and the 1st inversion are mirrors of each other:

• In the basic position, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 3rd, the right hand plays the 5th and the major 7th.
• In the 1st inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 3rd, the left hand plays the 5th and the major 7th.
• The 3rd inversion and the 4th inversion are mirrors of each other:

• In the 3rd inversion, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the major 7th, the right hand plays the 9th and the 5th.
• In the 4th inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the major 7th, the left hand plays the 9th and the 5th.
• In the 2nd inversion (the median), the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 13th, the right hand starts on the major 7th and end with the 3rd on the very top.

And for major 7th #11 chords:

• The basic position and the 1st inversion are mirrors of each other:

• In the basic position, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the major 7th, the right hand plays the 9th and the #11th.
• In the 1st inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the major, the left hand plays the 9th and the #11th.
• The 3rd inversion and the 4th inversion are mirrors of each other:

• In the 3rd inversion, the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the #11th, the right hand plays the 13th and the 9th.
• In the 4th inversion, the right hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the #11, the left hand plays the 13th and the 9th.
• In the 2nd inversion (the median), the left hand is the 3 note hand and starts on the 3rd, the right hand starts on the #11th and end with the major 7th on the very top.

Since So What chords work well with both minor and major seventh chords, they can be easily applied to II-V-I’s. The following are some examples in the key of C starting from different So What chord inversions:

Starting on root position:

Starting on 1st inversion:

Starting on 2nd inversion:

Starting on 3rd inversion:

Starting on 4th inversion:

To become familiarized with using So What chords, try applying them to II-V-I’s in all keys. In the following example the voicing positions are chosen so that they fall within the middle range of the keyboard:

An important and the signature application of So What chords is move them in parallel motion along the diatonic scale. This is especially useful during a long section of a single chord, often seen in modal tunes (“So What” is such a tune, obviously). To become familiarized with this application, play So What chords along diatonic scales of all keys:

## Two Handed Voicing With Upper Structures

Upper structure voicings are built by playing a triad in the right hand over a tritone in the left hand. They are most commonly used to voice dominant seventh chords with altered extensions with the left hand tritone defining the 3rd and 7th, and the right hand triad providing a convenience system for voicing various combinations of altered extensions.

The following example is an upper structure voicing for the chord G7b9 along with some variations based on inversions of the tritone and the triad respectively.

Upper structures are identified by the interval between the root of the bottom chord and the root of the right hand triad. In the above example, since the interval between the root of the bottom chord (G) and the root of the right hand triad (E) is a 6th, this particular voicing is referred to as an upper structure VI.

There are many possible upper structure combinations, but the two most commonly applicable upper structures are:

• USVI – Played on 7b9 chords from diminished harmony
• USbVI – Played on 7alt (altered) chords from melodic minor harmony

The following shows an example of each of these two upper structures with a G7 base chord. These two are the most common dominant 7th chord alterations:

Let’s try putting these voicings to work. First of all, the flat 9 is the most common alteration to the V chord in major II-V-I’s (It sounds smooth because of an implied tritone substitution). In addition, because 7b9 chords are associated with the half-whole diminished scale, the voicing for the V7b9 chord can be transposed up or down a minor 3rd (in diminished harmony, there are no avoid notes and everything that is a minor third apart are interchangeable). Thus we can voice a major II-V-I in C as follows:

Or if we start with a different inversion and transpose the V7b9 voicing in the other direction:

To get familiarized with the USVI one could try to voice II-V-I’s with it going through all 12 keys:

Because there are no avoid notes in diminished harmony, not only is everything interchangeable in intervals of minor third, any chord derived from a diminished scale is interchangeable with any other chord from the same scale. This means that voicings for 7b9 chords can also be applied to diminished chords derived from the same diminished scale. In the following example, the C#dim chord is voiced with a USVI for C7b9, and the D#dim chord is voiced with a USVI for D7b9:

Next, the USbVI can be directly applied to the Valt chord in minor II-V-I’s. In addition, recall that all three chords in minor II-V-I’s are modes from melodic minor harmony, and that everything is interchangeable for all modes from the same melodic minor scale (there are no avoid notes in melodic minor harmony), we can apply the USbVI to the other two chords as well.

The following example shows how a minor II-V-I in C minor can be voiced with upper structures:

Or if we start from a different inversion:

These voicings are actually very similar to the basic four note rootless voicings except for one added note. To get familiarized with the USbVI one could try to voice minor II-V-I’s with it going through all 12 keys:

Other possible upper structures include (lower case Roman numerals denote a minor triad):

• USII – Played on 7#11 (Lydian dominant) chords from melodic minor harmony
• USbIII – Played on 7#9 chords from diminished harmony
• USbV – Played on 7b9#11 chords from diminished or melodic minor harmony
• USi – Played on 7#9 chords from diminished harmony
• USbii – Played on 7b9b13 chords from altered scale harmony
• USbiii – Played on 7#9#11 chords from diminished or melodic minor harmony
• US#iv – Played on 7b9#11 chords from diminished harmony

Upper structures are typically derived from melodic minor, diminished or altered scale harmony. Although there are no avoid notes in these types of harmony, the composer of a tune may specify a particular chord over the others in order to highlight a certain note in the melody.

Let’s examine some applications of these additional upper structures in the context of tunes:

USII played on the 7#11 (Lydian dominant) chord at bar 14 of Beautiful Love:

USbIII played on the 7#9 chord at bar 2 of Blue In Green:

USbV played on the 7b9#11 chord at bar 13 of Laura:

USi played on the 7#9 chord at bar 11 of Inútil Paisagem:

USbii played on the 7b9b13 chord at bar 34 of Chega De Saudade:

USbiii played on the 7#9#11 chord at bar 12 of Gloria’s Step:

US#iv played on the 7b9#11 chord at bar 3 of Monk’s Mood: