However, this basic voicing always contains a fifth which can be raised
to a sixth for a more interesting voicing. For example, in C, playing the
A7b9 as (A) G C# E Bb is less interesting to me than (A) G C# F# Bb,
which I tend to think of in terms of upper structure voicing VI (US VI).
(i.e. F# major triad over the C#/G tritone, except that I'm omitting the
bottom C# because it's included in the triad in this case.
Moving this G C# F# Bb voicing around by minor thirds when approaching a
tonic sounds great too. I think I first learned this from Mark Levine's
book. On the piano, you can look at it as a triad in second inversion
(right hand) with a tritone tacked on to the bottom (left hand). Or you
can look at it as 7-3-13 in the left hand with a b9 tacked on to the top.
Or, inverting the tritone, 3-7-b9-13.
Note that an US VI voicing still has the same diminished quality when
used on the root a tritone away. i.e. stick an Eb root on G C# F# Bb and
you can still use the same diminished scale. Contrast this with the US II
(Lydian dominant i.e. #11) which "flips" to US bVI (Altered) when the
root is moved by a tritone.
> So if I want to play a Cm7 with a G melody note, I choose the
> C7b9 chord consisting of E, Bb, Db, G and then know that shape
> has to be modified by making the E->Bb and the Db->C since
> Cm7 = [C, Eb, G, Bb].
I find myself wondering about the usefulness of this. Obviously these
steps can't be done in real time. It seems to me that we need to get
these chord shapes ingrained in us, and be able to "rotate" them through
an underlying scale (I've heard this called "planing"), and be able to
relate them to substitute chords of a similar quality, as in the Lydian
dominant/altered example mentioned earlier. But deriving a minor voicing
from a dominant b9 one as above seems roundabout to me. Maybe it's just a
guitar thang.
Cheers,
Richard
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"It's no use prevaricating about the bush"
-- Wallace, in "The Wrong Trousers"
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