Open Voicings for Jazz Piano. If your playing sounds muddy, try this instead

Jazz Tutorial

What is an Open Voicing?

Open voicings are when you take an ordinary 7th chord (that would normally be built in thirds), and you spread out its notes so that they span a wider range.
Most open voicings span at least a 10th, if not a 12th, or even a two octave span.
What are some types of Open Voicing that Jazz pianists use?
Here are some open voicings that Jazz piano players use:
1 - 5 - 3 - 7 (ideal when the melody plays the chord's 7th).
1 - 5 - 7 - 3 (ideal when the melody plays the chord's 3rd).
1 - 7 - 3 - 5 (ideal when the melody plays the chord's 5th).
What type of Jazz chords can I use Open Voicings on?

Open voicings can be used for all types of 7th chord in Jazz . This includes major 7 chords, minor 7 chords, dominant 7 chords, half-diminished chords, diminished 7 chords, and minor-major 7 chords.
In each case, the open voicing is the same (the same set of scale degrees), but you'll need to adjust the notes slightly each time to to fit the chord type and its chord tones.
So for a C major 7 chord, you could play an open voicing like this:
C - G - E - B
Notice that for C major 7 it has a major 3rd (E) and a major 7th (B).
For a C minor 7 chord, you could play the same open voicing as above, but with a minor 3rd (Eb) and a minor 7th (Bb), like this:
C - G - Eb - Bb.
And for C dominant 7, you could play the same open voicing again, but this time with a major 3rd (E) and a minor 7th (Bb), like this:
C - G - E - Bb.
You could even play the same open voicing for a C half-diminished chord, like this:
C - Gb - Eb - Bb.
You could play the same open voicing for a C diminished 7 chord, like this:
C - Gb - Eb - A.
And you could play the same open voicing for a C minor-major 7 chord, like this:
C - G - Eb - B.
And this is just one of the types of open voicing that Jazz piano players use. You can do the same thing for any of the other open voicings, just make sure you adjust each of the notes to fit with the chord type and its chord tones.
Can I use open voicings when playing Jazz standards?
Open voicings can be used when you're playing Jazz standards on the piano. They work best when the melody note is a chord tone - either the root, 3rd, 5th or 7th.
Just choose the open chord voicing that has the melody note as its top note.
Why do Jazz piano players use open voicings?
The benefit to using open voicings in your Jazz piano playing is that they have a wide, spread out sound. They span a wide range, from the bass, to the mid, sometimes even to the high range.
Because open voicings spread out the notes of a chord by bigger intervals, they create a clean sound in your Jazz piano playing.
You can use open voicings when playing any Jazz standard, and they are an essential type of chord voicing to add to your collection of chord voicings.
How do I practice Jazz piano chord voicings?
The best way to practice any Jazz piano chord voicing is to build it from every note on the piano. There's only 12 notes, which means a chord voicing can be built from 12 different notes.
When you practice building a chord voicing, make sure you count the intervals precisely every time. Do not try to memorize the note names for every chord voicing you learn, as you'll tap out after your first few voicings.
Instead, try to remember a chord voicing by its interval pattern - e.g. 'root - 7th - 9th - 3rd - 5th', and then you can build the interval pattern from any note.
Is there anything to help me learn open voicings?

To go with this lesson, I've written a free chord voicing ebook for Jazz piano. It shows you 5 types of chord voicing which you can use to play Jazz standards. Down