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... D C:...for D minor.
F C:...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 full sounding chords is not the easiest thing in the world. Nonetheless, if you read this course, you'll learn step by step, how to create left hand 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 left hand 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 left hand voicings. "Thirds and Sevenths And What Else?" The left hand 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 left hand voicings. Left Hand Voicings of Ninth Chords Left hand 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 E B: 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 Eb Bb:...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 E Bb: If we add the ninth (D) to it, this will produce:
...the left hand 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 Date:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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:.
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.)