Quartal Voicings

Alberto Betancourt (albetan)

A new field in harmony is to build chord structures in fourths (quartals). It produces a more open harmony and is a very practical resort for pianists. Left hand plays chord vocing in fourths. There are four quartal voicings in each chord for left hand: In upper staff: Take notes of C scale in fourth intervals departing from B. All are notes of extended C chord: 7, 3, 13, 9, 5, 1. In lower staff do quartal voicings departing from 3, from 13, from 9, from 7. Notice the quartal arpeggio from E to C : all notes of C pentatonic scale.

&
C

w ?w w w

w w w 13 w

w w w w
9

w w w 7 w

EXERCISE: Practice these four voicings in all tonalities:

C

bbbbb

Db

nnnnn##

? ##

nnbb

Eb

## # n # nn

Quartal Voicings

? ####

nnnnb

## # # # n #

? #### # #

F#

n n nnn#

nbb b b

? bb b b

Ab

# # n n # nn

nnnbb

? bb

Bb

# # n # # n #
B

Diatonic Quartals or Modal Fourths:

If we work with natural notes of diatonic scale, we have diatonic quartals or Modal Fourths..

Quartal Voicings

& ? ?
D m7

G7

D b7

bb b
C

Experiment with diatonic quartals:

G7

Db7 in bar 5 is a substitute chord for G7.

&

II V I in diatonic progressions:
Most of pieces are in diatonic progressions. Then use diatonic quartals. In II we are using quartal vocing with 3rd up, V7 with 13 up, and I with 9 up.
E b m7 A b7 Db

D m7

G7

bbbb b

Follow this exercise in all tonalities.

D # n n nnn # E m7 A 7

& n n

Inverted quartals:
We may invert quartal voicings:

&

So an inverted quartal is equal to a fifth interval, adding a major second from top or from bottom. EXERCISE: Practise all inverted quartals.

Quartal Voicings

Diatonic circle with quartals:

Do a diatonic circle with bass and play quartal voicings with right hand. In minor and halfdiminished chords try to play seventh and third into quartal.

? ?w ? ?
A m7 C

B m7b5

E m7

w
D m7

w
G7

w
C

Practise diatonic circle with quartals in all tonalities. When you perform quartal voicings, you are working with a more open harmony. In LearnJazzPiano you will find a special "room" for quartals with good exercises written by 7. Good luck and enjoy piano accompaniment with quartals.