In this Jazz Piano online course I will bring you from the level of a complete jazz beginner up to the level of an intermediate/advanced pianist. We will talk about both theory and applications, and cover concepts ranging from chords and scales, to diatonic harmony, voicings, substitutions, soloing, tensions, and much more. Course playlist:

   • Jazz Piano for Complete Beginners  

In this fourth lesson I will explain what it means to voice a chord, and how voice leading works. These two ideas are at the base of "smooth" sounding jazz chords - or, more accurately, smooth sounding chord transitions. We'll study one particularly simple type of voicing, known as a shell voicing, which retains only the most important chord degrees (3rd, 7th, and any altered degree). We'll then go back to our ballad and play it using shell voicings, and I'll give you tips on practicing what I've shown you. Even though shell voicings are simple, they are deceptively so, and mastering them is an important stepping stone for anyone who wants to play jazz piano.

Table of Contents
0:00 Introduction
1:34 Part 1 - Theory (Chord voicings)
2:26 Examples
8:05 Theory (Voice leading)
10:14 Another example
10:58 An exercise
12:18 Part 2 - Application
13:40 Breakdown of ballad
16:30 Part 3 - Practice
17:22 An example
18:03 Overview of next lesson