Orientation to Chord Voicings on Pads

qb@qbsmith.com

February 2017

The Ableton Push (in Chromatic Scale mode), Novation LaunchPad, and

Linnstrument, all feature a common note layout where from bottom to top

each pad on the vertical axis is a perfect fourth (five semitones) higher, while

each pad left to right on the horizontal axis is one semitone higher (V:+5,

H:+1). This is the same note layout as bass guitar and string instruments

such as violin.

To put the Push in Chromatic mode, press Scale and toggle from In-scale to

Chromatic. Leaving the Push in C Major Chromatic helps visually orient as to

where the notes are. Black keys are greyed out to indicate they are not

diatonic to C Major, but because we’re in chromatic mode they remain

playable. Meanwhile each C note across the octaves is lit blue, helping us

identify not just C but all the notes around C and making clear how a

diagonal up-right vector of two pads is a movement of an octave.

Summary of Intervals on the Chromatic Push

From the previous page we can summarize the following:

Adjacent-right pads are one semitone higher (minor second), therefore

adjacent-left pads are one semitone lower. A horizontal distance of two pads

is therefore a major second, three pads is a minor third, and so on.

Adjacent-above pads are five semitones higher (perfect fourth interval), which

in turn means pads directly below are five semitones lower, which in turn

means that a perfect fifth up, when transposed down an octave, is the pad

directly below. IE, looking back at the previous page, note how F is above C,

and G is below C. Note also how the G above C is up-one-and-right-two

from C. It is worth orienting yourself to all the interval distances and shapes.

As we know that the pad on the left of any other pad is a semitone lower (and

the pad on the right is a semitone higher), we therefore know that the pad on

the left of the pad directly above (which we know to be a fourth higher) is a

major third higher, and continuing one more pad to the left therefore is a

minor third.

Therefore the pad to the right of a pad directly above, is a sharpened fourth,

which is the same as a flattened fifth, which is same as a tritone or three

whole tones, or half an octave. Note that this is a diagonally adjacent pad in

an upwards-and-right direction. Given that adjacent diagonal up-and-right

pads are a tritone higher, then a distance of two pads diagonally up-and-

right is an octave.

Given that a pad directly above is a perfect fourth higher, then two pads

above has to be a minor seventh (5 + 5 semitones). In fact playing an up-

wards sequence along a vertical row is equivalent to moving around the

cycle of fourths. Starting on C and going up we then have F, Bflat, Eflat,

Aflat, Dflat, Gflat, B.

No matter which pad we start on, this distance to an interval is always

uniformly the case. Once you have learnt the hand shape needed to play a

particular chord voicing, you can use the same hand position from any root

pad.

Note that left-to-right from the bottom, that once we get from C to F, that the

note is repeated, existing in two places, IE there are two pads that both play

the lowest F. Pressing either of them lights up the other. This of course is

what enables the uniformity, the symmetry, the “transpositional invariance”

(IE, if you transpose, the hand shape does not vary).

Example Voicing:

Dm9

A D minor is a common and useful enough place to start when voicing

chords, and it allows us to begin a ii-V-I progression.

Press the four green keys as indicated with your right-hand, and if you want

to hear how it sounds with the root, then you can also play a low D with your

left.

The right-hand chord is made up of the 7th, 9

th, and 3

rd with the 5

th on top.

Employ a hand shape that allows you to easily move between this voicing,

and an inversion with the C an octave higher. For example, thumb on E,

index on A, middle on F, and fourth on C, allows you to take your fourth

finger off C and swing a little finger up to the C an octave higher, and switch

between inversions. Experiment and investigate with comfortable hand

positions and get used to the flexible spidery nature of a 2D grid of notes.

This voicing is Mark Levine’s Jazz Piano left-hand voicing for a ii chord, in B

position. Refer to the Mark Levine Jazz Piano Book, or his Jazz Theory book,

or the Jamey Aebersold play-along volumes.

Example Voicing:

G7

Following a D minor functionally around the cycle of fourths as part of a ii-V-I

progression, would be a G dominant chord.

This particular voicing is arranged for smooth voice leading, with just the one

note needed to change from the prior D minor.

As is always the case with a ii-V progression, the seventh of the ii, in this

case C, moves a half-step down to become the 3rd of the V, which is B. The

other three notes, A, E, F, which are the 6th, 7

th and 9

th of G dominant, don’t

need to change.

Example Voicing:

C Major 9 (tonic I chord)

C major has a bad reputation in my house for being the boring chord, but

that’s mainly because it’s the first chord we all learn, and we learn it as a

triad, and it sounds nothing like any of the records Q-tip sampled on the first

three Tribe Called Quest albums, which were the chords we were trying to

learn. But when you at least stick the ninth in the voicing, C major starts to

get fresher, and begins to sound more like the Pharaoh Sanders The Creator

Has a Master Plan version of a major chord. More contemporaneously, even

Adele’s Hello manages to stir a ninth into its stew of pop hitness.

The so-called extension or tension, or colour tones, namely the ninth,

eleventh and thirteenth, are a crucial aspect of the pursuit of harmonic

wonder, and the least we can do without needing to be so esoteric as to start

altering tones is to sprinkle these colour tones liberally through our Push

voicings. In the case of major chords I find the colours entirely necessary.

The eleventh of course is the same thing as the fourth, and in terms of major

chords is a won’t-always-work note. It’s common to sharpen this fourth,

which technically makes a major chord into a Lydian chord. The thirteenth is

the same thing as the sixth, and is entirely fine. For now though, we’re just

adding one tiny little ninth.

Example Voicing:

Em (So What Voicing)

The So What voicing, named after the Miles Davis record, consists of a series

of stacked fourths plus a major third.

As the Push interface is based on vertical columns of fourths, the So What

voicing is somewhat easier to play than it might be on a keyboard.

Building up from E as the root, the chord contains root, 11th, 7

th, 3

rd and 5

th.

Of course E minor voicings such as this one can be used as rootless C major

chords. Including the low C would make it sound explicitly like C major. We

can play this voicing instead of the particular major chord voicing on the

previous page as a tonic resolution of our ii-V-I progression of Dm, G7, C.

At this point please experiment with your own voicings and inversions.

Recreate on the Push any favourite voicings you play on other instruments.

Instead of tonic C major, we could play Cm and D7 and call it all a iii-VI-ii-V.

Transpositional Invariance Example

3-Note Dominant Chord Voicing

Note that with the iii-VI-ii-V example, the voicing for the two minor chords are

identical (7th, 9

th, 3

rd, 5

th), and the voicing for the two dominant chords are also

identical (3rd, 6

th, 7

th, 9

th). On the Push no matter the root, when voicings are

the same, then the note layout and therefore hand position is the same,

which was mentioned at the start. This is the “transpositional invariance”

whereby if you transpose a chord, the hand shape does not vary.

For the simplest of examples, here is all three chords of a mixolydian blues in

simple three-note (root, 3rd, 7

th) voicings with the fifth omitted, with C7, F7,

and G7 shown.

Major and Minor Third Shapes

The more you play the Push the more you will notice note symmetries in the

layout, such as the diagonal up-left relationship of major and minor thirds.

Below you can see three different hand shapes for playing a root position

major triad. Incidentally, for technical skill you only need to practice major

triads in root position in these three hand shapes. You would still want to

practice in all twelve keys, but for other reasons than technique, such as ear

training.

Note how the interval of the major third is up-and-left one pad, whereas the

interval of the minor third is up one and left two.

Note also that while I previously remarked on “transpositional invariance”,

you often find that your voicing starts out too close to the left or right edges

of the instrument layout and that one or more notes you are looking for is

outside of the layout of the Push, so you have to use a different hand shape,

play the alternative position for the missing note in order to voice the chord

you are after.

G major serves as a better visual illustration of the relationship of major and

minor third intervals on the Push.

(Note that after we get to the ninth chord tone, in this case A, a major chord

stops following the pattern of major third, minor third, major third, minor third.

You would expect an alternating major third to come next but that would give

us a Lydian chord as it would land on a sharpened fourth, so in order to be

diatonically major, the pattern varies at this point. The diatonic perfect fourth

is C, the next chord tone is the sixth, and the eighth of course is the root.)

There will be more on such patterns in a separate document, but it’s worth

noting from now the hand shapes required for moving around in major and

minor thirds, in particular the left-and-up direction, as it’s such a common

arpeggiation.

Example Voicing

Kenny Barron Voicing and Perfect Fifths

The following shows a Kenny Barron voicing for C minor (9,11). On a

keyboard this would be played with C, G and D in the left hand, which are

perfect fifth intervals apart, while the right hand would play the E flat, B flat

and F, also perfect fifth intervals apart. On the Push all these perfect fifths are

up-one-right-two.

If you want to play a perfect fifth up, but transposed down an octave, you’ll

find it is the pad directly below, as was mentioned much earlier. For example

G is up-one-right-two of C, but it is also directly beneath C.

For something like a bossa nova bass line constructed from root and fifths

this is now the easiest thing in the world for you to learn to play. So long as

you can identify the root notes on the Push you can easily find and play the

fifth either above or below.

The bass line of a previously mentioned song, The Creator Has a Master

Plan, is constructed from this kind of stacked fifths, in that it is made up of

the root, fifth and ninth of each of the chords (check out the Louis Armstrong

and Leon Thomas recording).

Example Voicing

Sus (Maiden Voyage Voicing)

One almost final voicing for this introductory session, here is Herbie

Hancock’s Maiden Voyage voicing for D sus, with the doubled G. If you

haven’t come across this elsewhere, note how the root and fifth in the left

hand is accompanied by a C major triad in the right. This is one way that

some musicians remember this sus voicing, IE, a major triad a whole-step

down from the root, in this case a C major being played over a D in the bass.

What’s really being voiced of course is the 7th, 9

th and 4

th of D sus.

Note that the C major triad is in second inversion with the G being followed

by the C, and the E. This would be a common way to play a sus chord, but

Herbie then adds a double of the G on top which serves to pronounce the

sus quality, to thicken the chord, and to kind of have both root position and

second inversions of the triad be present at once.

Example Voicing:

I-V-vi-IV Triads

As a flipside to the prior colourful voicings, and for sake of pop music culture

completeness, we’ll close with something far more vanilla-flavoured.

The following illustrates the classic simple triadic I-V-vi-IV chord progression

in C major, which apparently is all some people need for their whole careers!

Good luck, and enjoy!