Creating Four or Five Part Harmony with Shells

In this lesson, we're going to look at creating four or five-part harmony with shells in the left hand, otherwise known as two-handed voicing. We will transform the single note melody, starting out with a bass line, into a fuller two-handed approach.

Guidelines

1. Diminished Chords
   For instance, with half-diminished chords, it's quite common to have a fourth in the melody.

   • E half diminished:
     • You could play it like that.
     • Notice I haven't included the flat 5 because you don't normally get fifths in shells.
     • You could put it here.

2. Seven Sharp Five
   The first example also had a seven sharp five, which we've seen in St. James's Infirmary.

   • If I wanted to beef that up and change it from four-part harmony to five-part harmony, then I can:

     • Put in the flat five.
     • Keep the B flat in the A chord where it becomes the flat nine.

   • Important Note: The BV diminished chord becomes the B9 when you go to the V chord in a II-V progression.

     • This is A II-V in the key of D minor.

3. Altered Dominant Chords
   In minor keys, dominant chords often have alterations like:

   • Sharp 5
   • Flat 5
   • Flat 9
   • Sharp 9

   Here's two sets of dominant voicings:

   • First Set:
     With root and third in the left hand and just two notes in the right.

     • D7, B9:
       • I actually recommend index finger and thumb for root and third, making an E on top.
       • That makes D9.
       • F on top is D7, sharp 9 going for the root and seventh shell.

   • D7 Flat 5:
     Move the A flat to an A; you get an ordinary D7.

     • This is a root 735 voicing.
     • Raise the fifth: D7 sharp 5 or D7+ as it's sometimes written.
     • D13 with a B on top.

Key Voicings to Memorize

• First Voicing: Root 379
• Second Voicing: Root 735

These are all four-part harmony voicings.

Additional Tips

• Remember what I said before about using a root 735 voicing when you have the fifth note as the melody note, C major 7.

  • If the melody was hovering around the fifth, then you could play that voicing at the start and finish.
  • To thicken that even more, you can play five notes, allowing you to have the third in the left hand without needing to double it in the right.

• Another useful situation to memorize is when the 9th is in the melody:

  • This is when you can use your root three seven nine voicing.
  • If the melody started on D (the ninth for a C minor chord), you could harmonize that at the front and at the end.

Examples

• Five-Part Harmony in A Minor
  Same example in five-part harmony but in a different key as A minor with the ninth in the melody.

Memorizing the Voicings

To get your head around these voicings, particularly the ones with the fifth and ninth in the melody, try to memorize these formulae:

• C Minor:

  • Root 735
  • Alternative in five-part harmony: Root 3795

• Sound Comparison:
  One is a bit thicker than the other; one has the ninth, the other hasn't.

  • The same voicings for the ninth on top:
    • Root 379 C minor 9 with D on top.
    • The five-part version would have a root and seventh shell.
      • This results in a lovely voicing as opposed to the thinner one.

Thus, you have four parts or five parts with either a root three or a root seven shell.