Jermaine Griggs
& Chuku Onyemachi
Practice Journal For
Left Hand
Ninth Chord Voicings
A Two‐Week Program For Mastery Of Major, Dominant, and
Minor Ninth Voicings In ALL Keys.
Section 1 What You Need To Know
BEFORE GETTING
STARTED
One of the challenges of piano playing at the next level is playing chords on the left hand.
Here's what the beginner's left hand can typically handle with ease...
C:
...for C major.
E:
...for E minor.
Those are basically single notes.
With a little progress, it graduates to intervals...
DC:
...for D minor.
FC:
...for F major.
This is where the left hand settles for a long while before graduating further to chords.
Graduating from playing notes and intervals to fullsounding chords is not the easiest thing in the world.
Nonetheless, if you read this course, you'll learn step by step, how to create lefthand voicings.
“What is Voicing?” A chord is a collection of three or more related notes.
The consideration of these notes as voice parts is called voicing. Voicing deals with the rearrangement of the notes of a chord as though they are voices.
Our focus today is on rearranging the notes (aka "voices") of a chord to produce lefthand voicings
(rearrangements) and consequently, we'll be expanding on the concept of the skeleton voicing technique.
Quick Review of Skeleton Voicings It's possible to play seventh chords with just two notes with the skeleton voicing technique.
This rearrangement is all about playing the third and seventh tones of the chord.
The following seventh chords...
C major seventh:
C minor seventh:
C dominant seventh:
...can be reduced to their skeleton voicings:
C major seventh:
C minor seventh:
C dominant seventh:
...respectively, which consists of the third and seventh tones.
Let's transform these skeleton voicings into lefthand voicings.
"Thirds and Sevenths And What Else?"
The lefthand voicings we'll be covering in this post are basically adapted from the skeleton voicing of chords.
The only difference is we’ll be fleshing up these skeletons with some muscles to make them more suitable for the left hand, among other things.
To do this, I’ll be introducing one compound interval – the ninth.
"Hello Ninths?"
In addition to thirds and sevenths, we can bring in the ninth a compound interval.
Compound intervals exceed the span of an eighth (aka "octave"). In the major scale of C:
...beyond the eighth tone (C):
...lies the ninth (D):
...the tenth (E):
...the eleventh (F):
...and beyond.
The major ninth has a letter name that is similar to the major second. Remaining in the key of C, here’s a contrast between the second:
...and the ninth:
…where the letter name is the same but the notes are an octave apart.
Make no mistakes about it, in chord formation, the second tone is the ninth and vice versa.
Therefore, we'll be adding the ninth (or the second if you belong to my school of thought) to the skeleton voicings of chords to produce lefthand voicings.
LeftHand Voicings of Ninth Chords
Lefthand voicings are usually extended chords.
Extended chords are chords that have compound intervals (aka – “extensions”). Ninth chords obviously belong to this group.
We'll be covering three ninth chord qualities major, minor, and dominant.
Major Ninth
The major ninth chord is basically a major seventh chord with the ninth. C major seventh chord:
...plus its ninth tone (D):
...produces the C major ninth chord:
In the same vein, the skeleton voicing of the C major seventh is EB:
If we add the ninth (D) to it, this would produce:
...the left hand voicing of C major ninth.
Minor Ninth
Addition of the ninth chord tone to a basic minor seventh chord would produce the minor ninth chord. Using C minor seventh chord as an example:
...adding the ninth tone (D):
...to this basic minor seventh chord would produce the C minor ninth chord:
Using the same procedure, the skeleton voicing of the C minor seventh, which is EbBb:
...can be upgraded to a minor ninth left hand voicing:
...if we add the ninth (D) to it.
Dominant Ninth
The dominant ninth chord is basically a dominant seventh chord with the ninth. C dominant seventh chord:
...plus its ninth tone (D):
will produce the C dominant ninth chord:
In the same vein, the skeleton voicing of the C dominant seventh is EBb:
If we add the ninth (D) to it, this will produce:
...the lefthand voicing of C dominant ninth.
Section 2
A Two‐Week Commitment To The
MASTERY OF LEFT‐HAND VOICINGS
Week 1 of 2
Day 1 Ninth chords on C
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on C.
This 12‐minute practice can add a lot to your left hand. Take it seriously. Don’t be like those who will finish up in a
minute or two only to forget the left‐hand voicings covered when it’s time for application.
Have fun practicing!
C major ninth (4 minutes)
C dominant ninth (4 minutes)
C minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
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Day 2 Ninth chords on F
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on F.
F major ninth (4 minutes)
F dominant ninth (4 minutes)
F minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 3 Ninth chords on Bb
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on Bb.
Bb major ninth (4 minutes)
Bb dominant ninth (4 minutes)
Bb minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 4 Ninth chords on Eb
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on Eb.
Eb major ninth (4 minutes)
Eb dominant ninth (4 minutes)
Eb minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 5 Ninth chords on Ab
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on Ab.
Ab major ninth (4 minutes)
Ab dominant ninth (4 minutes)
Ab minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 6 Ninth chords on Db
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on Db.
Db major ninth (4 minutes)
Db dominant ninth (4 minutes)
Db minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 7 Review Of Ninth Chords covered in Week 1
C major ninth C dominant ninth C minor ninth
F major ninth F dominant ninth F minor ninth
Bb major ninth Bb dominant ninth Bb minor ninth
Eb major ninth Eb dominant ninth Eb minor ninth
Ab major ninth Ab dominant ninth Ab minor ninth
Db major ninth Db dominant ninth Db minor ninth
Dear Musician,
You’ve consistently followed this program consistently for one week and I’m convinced at this
point that you’re serious about learning left‐hand voicings. We’ve just covered 50% of all the
major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on the keyboard.
We’re not done yet! We still have one more week to cover the balance of the keys. If you don’t
give up, you’ll have a stronger left hand that can handle ninth chords and beyond.
Congratulations and keep keeping on.
Jermaine Griggs President and Founder
Hear and Play Music Group
P.S. ‐
Visit http://www.16weekchords.com to join our FREE 16‐week chord revival program. This is
one program that will show you the definition, breakdown, and formation approaches of 16
chord types with accompanying cheat sheets and reference guides (containing 126 exercises
per week.)
Week 2 of 2
Day 8 Ninth chords on Gb
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on Gb.
Gb major ninth (4 minutes)
Gb dominant ninth (4 minutes)
Gb minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 9 Ninth chords on B
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on B.
B major ninth (4 minutes)
B dominant ninth (4 minutes)
B minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 10 Ninth chords on E
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on E.
E major ninth (4 minutes)
E dominant ninth (4 minutes)
E minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 11 Ninth chords on A
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on A.
A major ninth (4 minutes)
A dominant ninth (4 minutes)
A minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 12 Ninth chords on D
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on D.
D major ninth (4 minutes)
D dominant ninth (4 minutes)
D minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 13 Ninth chords on G
Welcome to today’s lesson. We’ll be practicing the left‐hand voicings of the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on G.
G major ninth (4 minutes)
G dominant ninth (4 minutes)
G minor ninth (4 minutes)
Started
Ended
Notes
Date:……………………………….
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Day 14 Revision Of Ninth Chords covered in Week 2
Gb major ninth Gb dominant ninth Gb minor ninth
B major ninth B dominant ninth B minor ninth
E major ninth E dominant ninth E minor ninth
A major ninth A dominant ninth A minor ninth
D major ninth D dominant ninth D minor ninth
G major ninth G dominant ninth G minor ninth
Dear Musician,
You’ve invested two weeks in learning left‐hand voicings. I don’t need to be there with you to
know that you’ve made tremendous progress.
Now that we’ve covered 100% of all the major, dominant, and minor ninth chords on the
keyboard, that leaves no stone unturned. However, it isn’t time to sit back and relax. While
waiting for the next practice journal, endeavor to make these left‐hand voicings an integral
part of your everyday practice routine. Through repetition, mastery is inevitable.
Like I said in the beginning of this practice journal, graduating from notes and intervals to
full‐sounding ninth chords isn’t the easiest thing to do. But where focus goes, energy flows! You
can do it!
I can’t wait to give you what to practice on the right hand over these left‐hand voicings in the
near future.
Great work!
Jermaine Griggs President and Founder
Hear and Play Music Group
P.S. ‐
Visit http://www.16weekchords.com to join our FREE 16‐week chord revival program. This is
one program that will show you the definition, breakdown, and formation approaches of 16
chord types with accompanying cheat sheets and reference guides (containing 126 exercises
per week.)
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