The ninth in left- and right-hand chords

Slow Blues Comping Pattern in G

In this lesson, I'm going to show you a really useful comping pattern for a slow blues in G.

Overview

• We'll use a left hand technique that we've looked at in part one, which we could call the Yancey special.
• In the right hand, we'll include the ninth of the chord.

Revisiting Ninths

If you have a G7 chord, you've gone:

• Root
• 3
• 5
• 7

Let's add the 9th above the 7th. So there's a full G9 chord. The 9th, incidentally, is the same note as the 2nd. But when you say G9, you need to understand that it also includes a flattened seventh.

Understanding G9

• It's really G7 with an added ninth.
• You can see that these notes are built in thirds.

Any of those notes can be played when you see the chord symbol G9 or G7, for that matter.

Guitar Style Mimicry

Now, we're going to do this in a style I associate with guitar, because in guitar, you can move chord shapes up and down on the fretboard, and the intervals remain the same.

• This isn't always possible on the piano.
• But in the key G, you can move, for instance, a G6 chord down a tone, keeping the same spacing and hand position.

And you end up moving from G6 (Root-3-6) to 7-9-5, just by moving to the next door shape one note down. That's convenient to remember as well. It mimics what guitarists often do when they're comping in a slow blues.

First 12 Bars

Here's the first 12 bars that I just played. On the 12th bar, you could call that a D augmented chord.

• An augmented triad is an ordinary triad with a raised fifth.
• That's why we have the B flat in the chord. Think of it as an A sharp, if you prefer.

Also remember, this was in Swing Quavers or Triplet feel. You should be able to hear a sort of triplet feel underneath it. That's the same groove that we did in part one of this course in lesson four, New Orleans Triplets Workout. So that feel underlies this whole thing, whether I play the triplets or not.

But when we go to the D bar, suddenly it's in straight eights.

Left Hand Changes

Now, before we play the second half, let me explain what the left hand is going to do. We have a radical change in style here.

• From playing a bassline, we will now be playing chords in the left hand.
• We haven't done this much before.

This style of left hand is what you might use if you're playing in a band with a bass player. If you've gotten a bass player, the last thing you need to do is play basslines.

In that situation, it's much more effective to play chords in the left hand, keeping them in the center of the piano.

Miming Guitar Strumming

The chords chosen mimic a guitar, where guitarists often strum on every beat (four to the bar). Notice the change from the G7 chord.

• Incidentally, that's a rootless voicing.
• Because a G triad would be this: move the root down to the seventh.

Think of that as a 7-3-5 shape with the seventh on the bottom.

Changing Chord Shapes

The beauty of these two chords is that I can move between them by:

• Keeping the top note on D
• Moving the other two notes down a semitone.

That automatically gives me my C chord, in fact, it's C9, which is the full C7-3-7-9. It's really easy to find these two shapes without even looking.

When we go to the D, I'm going to move those two notes up a semitone, keeping the D on top for all three chords. So the D shape is 3-7-root.

Right Hand Transition

Now, let's go from that arpeggio into the right hand, which is based on the ninth shapes.

• With my thumb on the 5th of the chord, I can include the 9th at the top with my little finger.
• I'll do it from the arpeggio with the augmented chord, using the sustain pedal to make those notes really ring.

A word of explanation about these shapes: you can see that's a five finger position on D minor, but I'm using it over the G chord. My thumb is on the 5th, taking me up to the 9th at the little finger.

You need to be able to cover all five notes with one finger for every note. That's why it's called a five finger position.

Moving Through Chords

When we go to C, it looks like G minor, but it's really C9.

• Then, this bit starts on the root and third, going down in semitones to take me to the 7th and the 9th, these are chromatic passing notes.

Here's the same phrase on C9, but with G minor in the right hand, which has a slightly different rhythm.

In bar seven, we go to an A6 idea with the ninth A on the bottom. I'm adding some chromatic notes to link up the notes of the chord. That's a classic blues lick using these sixths with chromatic notes.

Turnaround

The turnaround, the last two bars, goes from G to C and back to G. Then these two chords, E flat to D. So D is the V chord.

We're ending on that, most turnarounds tend to end on the V chord. We're approaching it from a semitone up.

This a two-handed voicing: with root and seventh in the left hand, and E flat and 9-3-5 in the right, down a semitone.

Memorization

So memorize that voicing:

• Root and seventh (two notes in the left hand)
• 9-3-5 in the right hand (three notes).

When we come to the end, we want to finish on G. We approach that from a semitone up, a flat 7 with the 9th in the right hand to G9, our final chord.

Recap and Tip

Now I'll use these shapes again in the left hand and the same positions in the right hand (the five finger positions).

A little trick that I've already shown you: If you start on a root position, five finger position, when you go to the four chord, you can just make it minor and that will give you the ninth.

We did that earlier.