How is the "Jazz" voicing option supposed to work/be used - is it meant to only add ninths?

• Nov 2, 2022 - 20:07

Hi

I really like the idea of the Jazz voicings feature, but in practice it always seems to just add a ninth/second to the chord (i.e. C becomes Cadd9, Cm to Cmadd9, C7 to C9, etc.) regardless of the chord or context. It even does this with sus2 chords, adding an extra second and resulting in a chord with two notes in unison, which seems especially odd.

Is this the intended behaviour? I don't know enough about how chords are interpreted in jazz to know if this makes sense or not. Should it not also add 7ths, 11ths, 13ths etc. in some cases?

Thanks

Cai

Comments

• Nov 3, 2022 - 04:25

I don't think It will add a seventh as it is assumed in jazz all chords would already be notated with those. The ninth that gets added will either be unaltered or flatted according to context - basically, when resolving down a perfect fifth (like G7-Cma7), it will get the b9.

11ths would not be added in jazz except for minor chords. 13ths would, but I think you are right that this doesn't currently happen. I recall there were plans to maybe do that but it ended up just being about the ninth. I helped design the feature but it was a while ago and my memory is fuzzy.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.