Shell Voicings on Piano: Why C7 and F#7 Are the Same Two Keys (Tritone Substitution)

[music] Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson, we are going to focus on chords, but not the regular way we play chords with, you know, inversions to help you go from, let's say, C to F major or C7th to F major or something else, you know, which involves good voice leading, but with the same number of notes for the chord. So, if it's a triad, it'll have three. If it's a seventh chord, it would have four notes. So example C major has three notes. C7th has four notes. C, E, G, B flat. [music] Now when we use it, we can either play C major like this. Root position, first inversion, second inversion. While C7th, root position, first inversion, second inversion, and third inversion. In this lesson, we're going to just focus on the idea of voicing using shells. Shells are basically smaller note choices. You will not play all the notes of the chord 1 3 5 7 9 level. Instead, you figure out the notes that matter and the notes that are maybe spicy or important and also the notes that provide better voice leading and actually glide well from chord to chord or from harmony to harmony. The other advantage of learning shell voicings is so that you can improvise. You can kind of stay on a shell. [music] you kind of stay on that shell and then play within the vicinity of that shell. So in this lesson we are going to just look at a voicing which has two notes namely the third and the seventh and we'll pick just one chord for the lesson the dominant seventh chord. A dominant seventh chord will be the one the three the five [music] and the seven flat or the minor 7th. So it's basically a major chord [music] with a minor 7th interval added to it. So why that helps is if you say major chord plus B flat, you can go to the same major chord in any inversion [music] E G C and then add the B flat and then G [music] C E and then add the same old B flat and then C E G and you play the B flat either upstairs or downstairs [music] below the triad. Okay, so that was about playing the entire chord with all the four notes. So now over to shell voicing or you know the pick and choose kind of voicings where we take the important notes, keep that as a shell and then improvise, build rhythm patterns, build licks, build more advanced chords like the nines, sharp nines, 11s and so on and learn a lot of other rhythmic principles along the way. That's exactly what we are going to do in this entire lesson from start to finish. It's going to be about harmony. It's going to be about improvisation. It's going to be about basic rhythm patterns that you'll need for blues and jazz. A few fun exercises that you can do with your body like clapping and snapping at certain beats and a good workout in general. And to supplement this lesson, you'll have a practice study guide waiting for you on our Patreon with all the exercises and the notations. You'll also have my handwritten notes. And you'll also have an app in our Patreon page itself for exclusive Patreon subscribers to play this same exercise and do all the variations, not just on the key I'm teaching you in this lesson, on every single key. Okay? So in this lesson, we'll probably pick C and then move forward from there. But we are going to cover almost every movement. We'll move around the entire circle of fifths. So it won't really matter much. Okay. So before we get started, do get your keyboards out, play along with me, and stay tuned till the very end. You'll learn a lot. And there's also a subscribe button somewhere there. If you like what we do, do consider hitting the subscribe button and turn on the bell for regular notifications. Okay, so let's get cracking. So let's start with the C7th chord. You can start off by playing the root in the left hand, [music] the C. And in the right hand, you don't need to play C again because it's already in the left, right? So play C here. [music] And what's left? You have E, G, B flat. These are the remaining notes. So you already see a voicing of a dominant seventh chord being any root, upper major third. [music] and you play a diminished chord. This could free up your mind. So C diminished could be looked at as in E diminished/ C. [music] So that E diminished can be voiced in three shapes. Root position, first inversion, and second inversion. However, an even more simpler shell to practice would be to knock off the fifth as well. [music] Play the fifth in the left hand if you want later or anyway it becomes optional and in the right hand you play the third [music] as well as the seventh. So the third and seventh form a trionee interval. A tritone is basically perfect fifth minus one or a perfect fourth + one. And tritones work in pairs. So E to B flat could also be inverted and you end up generating [music] the other trionee which is B flat to E B flat B flat E B flat B flat E. So this can help you with the inversions or two shells for basically the same chord. And we later on look at the concept of tritones and tritone substitutions where the same shell could be used for two chords, two dominant seventh chords. So again to recap, in the left hand you play C, [music] the right hand you play E and B flat. And optionally in the left hand you can add on with a G. Start off [music] with this. 1 2 3 4 1 [music] 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 So, semi briefs in the right hand, [music] minim. [clears throat] You can also then consider the inversion [music] 1 2 a 3 4 1 2 a 3 4. [music] So the two shells are 3 seven flat for the dominant 7th and [music] 7 flat 3. Repeat 3 7 flat and then [music] seven flat three. So keeping this shell [music] you can improvise. [music] You can also [music] groove or add some rhythm to the shell or [music] maybe some slides. >> [music] [music] >> Okay. And the thing about the C7 shell, C's [music] third is E. C7 flat is B flat. But if you take C tritone, the chord itself, what is C tritone? G flat also known as F sharp. So if you go to the trionee either C going to F sharp or G flat you can retain the same shell three and seven flat it's just going to be called F sharp 7th [music] because F sharp or G flat 7th is in the bass. So C7th is also F sharp 7th if you keep the same shell and if you invert the shell 7 flat 3 it still holds [music] good for F sharp because it's the same notes C's third is F sharp 7 flat or C is seven flat is F sharp's third or major third right so just so you know with one shell you get two dominant seventh chords so using this principle with 12 dominant seventh chords, you're going to have two tritone pairs each, right? So, you'll just have to study six dominant seventh chords, so to speak, cuz each one would be a tronee substitution of each other. So, C to [music] F sharp. Then you'll have F to B. [music] Then you'll have B flat to its trionee [music] E B flat E B flat E. Then what [music] else? So you'll have E flat its trionee A E A E flat A E flat 7th A. Right? So E flat 7 trionee is A or A's trionee is E flat 7th and then you'll have a flat 7th [music] whose tritone would be D7 A flat 7th. [music] So you'll get six trionee pairs. Let's drift [music] forward to the D flat. Its trionee sub will be G7th. [music] And after D flat comes F sharp. And what's F sharp 7 trione? You guessed it, C7th. [music] So all you have to learn is basically the pairs and then learn six of them. And the shell in the right hand will either be 3 7 or 73. So let's give this a spin by actually moving in the circle. The circle of what? The circle of fifths. The most famous circle of music arguably. So you move the circle of fifths ideally counterclockwise because the chords resolve to each other. You can get 5:1 cadences also known as authentic or perfect cadences. You would also get two 51 progressions which are used a lot in jazz. All of this will be circle of fifths counterclockwise. So you'll have a D minor 7th, G7th, and C moving counterclockwise. But in this case, we'll just do it with dominant 7th chords. So you take C at the 12:00, [music] you go down a step counterclockwise, [music] you get F7th, and then you go down a step, [music] you'll get B flat 7th. You go down a step, you'll get a [music] E flat 7th. Then you go down a step, you'll get A flat, D flat, F sharp, [music] B, E, A, D, G, C. If you start with maybe a seven flat three voicing of C, you're just going to practice moving chromatically [music] like this to get those tronee pairs or trionee intervals. [music] And the left hand will just go around the circle of fifths with those roots. C, [music] F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, [music] F sharp, B, E, A, D, G, C. [music] And if you started on B flat E, you would end again on B [music] flat E. And you have two drills to work on. You'll have to do starting with the seven flat [music] 3. You can also start with three seven flat. Maybe I should have started with that in the first place. But anyway, so E B flat [music] and again chromatically pretty much in the right hand. [music] E flat A flat D flat F sharp B [music] A D G C 2 3 4 1 2 3. So shells are very useful while doing a lot of things while maybe improvising [music] on this you can build. So your hands are already playing two very spicy or authentic notes to the chord. And the other nice thing about shells for improvising and chord building is the tensions or the exciting notes are just or the extensions are just one step away. If you play [music] C7th like this, all you have to do to generate maybe a ninth [music] would be to play a C sharp there. Or maybe I can widen it with the three seven flat. Play the ninth either here. [music] It's a nine flat by the way. I can even play a normal nine or I can even play a sharp nine and it's the same shell. So your hand grip or your hand hold is almost the same. So this is a technique actually all instrumentalists which play chords especially guitar players and other stringed instruments follow. They basically get onto a shell shape and just add an extra note. And that extra note could be either down or it could be up, you know, and if it clashes, for example, you don't want to play the sharp nine like that cuz there's a semmit tone clash here. But if you play it there, it works. So the gaps between the notes are very important for the overall sound. You can [music] even change the shell. Instead of making the seven flat, you can add a sharp five. [music] It's still a C7th, but now it's becoming a bit more like an altered chord, so to speak. So, one note away, and you get a very sophisticated sound with the shells. And like I said, it's very easy to improvise with them. And another useful thing, of course, for shells would be to play licks and short phrases. Maybe I'll do another lesson on this later, but just to give you a quick idea, you know where I stole this song from, right? [music] So, you see where I'm going from there. You take popular songs, phrases from those songs and you can kind of make them your own and just kind of get multiple tiny ideas from different pieces of music and the shells will keep that harmony going. So now moving forward, let's learn a few rhythm patterns all based on a very simple rhythm system which I've talked about a few times in my blues lessons. Do check out some of the other lessons as well. You can access them in playlists. You can also access them on our free tutorials website which is basically an archive of all the stuff that we've covered on YouTube. So this rhythm is the Charleston rhythm. The Charleston rhythm will generally swing and it's a two hit phrase and the distance between the two hits is a dotted quarter note or one and a half counts. So it'll be swung 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and two. So, so you could just take a C7th one and two [music] and and now go down the circle [music] maybe with both hands where you can play the root of the chord in the left and I'll give you more rhythm patterns in the left for [music] sure. So let's do the other Charleston which is just displacing by one subbeat. So it'll be 1 and 2 3 4 1 and 3 4 1 and 2 3 4 1 and 2 3 4 That's basically 4 1 and 2. And I'm only [music] playing the shells in the right hand. 1 and 2 and 4 1 and 2 and 3 4 1 and 2 and [music] 4 1 and 2. You can even combine the two Charleston by going maybe the off one [music] and then the on one one off on off on on or do on off on [music] off but they are separated by that [music] dotted half note, a quarter note. [music] So you could do the same drill going down the circle of fifths with basically the Charleston A, Charleston B, which is at the displaced one, and then combining and then going down the circle of fifths. So let's try and bring in exercises for both of our hands. Now what if the left hand holds the Charleston and the right hand kind of increments. So left hand can do maybe root and fifth in Charleston 1 and 2 and the right hand can start with semi briefs. 1 and 2 and 3 and [music] four and 1 and two. One and two. Just keep it simple. One and [music] two and three and four and one and two and four and one. Then we can perhaps go to minmss [music] 1 and 2 and three. So you're striking at the one and three while here you continue on the one and the end of the two. [music] And 2 4 1 2 4 2 4 1 2 4 1 2. [music] You can also do crotchets in the right hand. maybe nice [music] and choppy except for the last one where you can do an accent. So, the last one could be 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 [music] 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 A 4 1 2 A 4 1 2 A 3 F 1 2 A 3 A 4 1 2 A [music] Okay, the actual goal I thought I'll have for [music] you in this lesson is the right hand plays at the two and the four. So 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 [music] and at this stage you might want to use a metronome so that you get the exact hit points or you know whether you're on time or not. So it'll go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Left hand's not doing [music] it's doing Charleston. up. [music] >> [music] >> 3 4 1 3 1 3 4 1 [music] F sharp B E A D [music] G C. So the left hand was pretty much holding the Charleston. Now, another nice thing for those of you arpeggio players out there is we can develop a nice cascade around the Charleston. So what I mean by that is you play the root, then you play the fifth, then you play the third or the seventh, and then you play the seventh [music] or the third or the third and the seventh [music] and swing and play four consecutive eighth notes. and two and three and four [music] and and so you're kind of playing the Charleston but in this cascading manner. [music] 4 1 2 3 You can use a [music] sustained pedal to hold it. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 [music] 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 3 [music] 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 [music] and 1 can hold that. [music] Okay. So you can also do the Charleston in the right hand. >> [music] >> What I like to do to start off is to snap at the 2 and 4. So 1 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 [music] 1 2 3 4 and so on. Right. So once you've done with the snapping with the right hand playing the Charleston 3 4 1 2 [music] 3 4 A one a two bring in some left hand and imagine the snapping. So 2 [music] 3 and 2. Let the left hand do it. One and the three. That'll be nice. 1 and 2 4 [music] and 1 and 2 3 and 1 and 2 and 3. Of course, the left hand can also upgrade by just playing slowly or increment by playing semi briefs. [music] 4 1 2. Then you can play quarter notes. >> [music] >> and then minims. [music] [snorts] With the minimums, you can add the fifths. There [music] we go. You can also add in a hand clap at the four. Maybe both the hands start off and then you clap at four. shift. So, it also makes it a bit tricky to shift because you have to take your hands away from the piano and then bring them back. Clap clap clap. You can also kind of snap at the three and four. A double double finger snap of both hands. So, it's tough to do because you have to recover faster clap and so on. So, it's a bit tricky right now because even in this video, my mic is literally on top of me. So, I don't want to hit the mic. So I have to move my hand back and then front. So it's a good challenge maybe to practice with a mic. Who knows? Okay. So in a nutshell, what we've learned is we've learned basically the dominant seventh chord as six pairs. We practice them as shells. So you don't have to learn them as separate chords. Well, that's another school of thought, but right now we've learned it as shells. So you practice those shells which are 3 seven or 7 flat 3 circle of fifths counterclockwise. and then start off with the Charleston rhythm in the regular one and the displaced manner. And then we work at hand independence, achieving hand independence or different things in both hands which make sense for a piano player, you know, executing or playing this genre. to practice this lesson a lot better on all the keys, definitely consider our app which is available and is there just for exclusive Patreon subscribers. You'll also have my handwritten notes as usual. You'll have the notation and a study guide. So, a lot of things waiting for you on a on our Patreon. And just this one lesson will give you a good amount of things to practice for a couple of weeks. And imagine this, all of the lessons that we've ever taught are just there for $8 a month as a subscription. That's it. So, do consider getting it and um enjoying it and let us know what you think as well. That'll also support the channel a great deal. Okay. Thanks a ton for watching the lesson. Don't forget to hit the like, share, subscribe if you liked it and catch you in the next one. Cheers.