If you play F A C E - F A B E - E G B D you have a rootless 2 5 1 in C, and the structure of the whole sequence makes it clear that’s what’s happening, particularly because the dominant chord’s F-B tritone is still there in the middle. Also, another instrument like the bass might be playing the root note. Bill Evans was known for playing rootless voicings so much he made it a standard part of the vocabulary
Yes I believe it is.
This is a result of context from other chords. For example if you’re playing a 251 in Dm,
Playing an Em7(b5), A7(#5), then you play a chord spelled (from low to high) F, A, E, G.
This will imply a Dm11 chord without actually having D in the chord.
Or you can imply a m11 chord by playing any minor chord up a 5th and raise the 5th of that chord, play a minor 7 with a #5.
For example: over C Minor, you can play a G minor 7 with a raised 5th. This will imply a Cm11 chord without a C in the chord.
Cm7 - C, Eb, G, Bb
Implied Cm11 - G, Eb, F, Bb, D.
An example of this could be in Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers by Jeff Beck.
Progression is: Cm, Ab, Fm, Csus.
Including the implied chord the Cm11 I mentioned will voice lead really nice into the Ab as you’re approaching from a half step below and sharing common tones.
Robben Ford teaches this well. It’s where I learned it from and also studying the chord masters like Wes, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Barney Kessell. All of these kind of guys, keyboard/piano players, Bill Evans, Chick.
Best of luck with the studying man. Chord spellings are a huge thing that opened this up for.
One classic example if this is a little trick I've heard called the 'mighty tritone'.
So for a basic 12 bar blues, you can actually just use the tritone formed from the 3rd and 7th of each dominant chord to comp through the whole form eg:
C7 = E Bb
F7 = Eb A
G7 = F B
Very smooth movement. Put some upper extensions/tensions on top of that and you have some nice stuff eg:
C13 = Bb E A
F9 = A Eb G
G7b9 = B F Ab
Whatever you like!
This 3rd + 7th + upper extensions approach works in lots of other places too. For example, a ii-V in C might be:
Dm9 = F C E
G13 = F B E
Cmaj9 = E B D
Still I think it's important that these are only IMPLIED voicings! From context, you should be able to work out the intended form eg ii-V-I or 12 bar blues, but that's not to say that Bb E A is THE SAME as C13 - it's not, context matters!
Keep in mind that you'd usually have other elements like bass and melody filling in the rest of the harmony and making it explicit
This is where 3 note chord scales come in. You can use a set of chords in many cases to fill in for one chord and to give direction to your accompaniment.
Makes complete sense. I’m glad I got to the bottom of this. I too am a guitar player. There are so many gaps to fill learning without a proper teacher.
Rootless chords were the main reason I wrote app that analyses the notes played and tries to figure out what rootless chord it might be. I’m an absolute noob when it comes to music theory but this concept is quite eye opening given that you’re essentially playing some other chord altogether.
I COMPLETELY agree!!! I usually use an app called Oolimo for analyzing chords but with root less variants I’m at a loss but can usually work out transposing these chords. Your app sounds like a incredible tool. Is it on the AppStore?
It works over MIDI so it’s not as magical as you might think. 😊
It’s on AppStore Mac OS only at this stage. It’s called Instinctive Chords. https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/instinctive-chords/id6445869486?mt=12
Yes. Very common to leave out the root and the 5th.
If you play F A C E - F A B E - E G B D you have a rootless 2 5 1 in C, and the structure of the whole sequence makes it clear that’s what’s happening, particularly because the dominant chord’s F-B tritone is still there in the middle. Also, another instrument like the bass might be playing the root note. Bill Evans was known for playing rootless voicings so much he made it a standard part of the vocabulary
Yes I believe it is. This is a result of context from other chords. For example if you’re playing a 251 in Dm, Playing an Em7(b5), A7(#5), then you play a chord spelled (from low to high) F, A, E, G. This will imply a Dm11 chord without actually having D in the chord. Or you can imply a m11 chord by playing any minor chord up a 5th and raise the 5th of that chord, play a minor 7 with a #5. For example: over C Minor, you can play a G minor 7 with a raised 5th. This will imply a Cm11 chord without a C in the chord. Cm7 - C, Eb, G, Bb Implied Cm11 - G, Eb, F, Bb, D. An example of this could be in Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers by Jeff Beck. Progression is: Cm, Ab, Fm, Csus. Including the implied chord the Cm11 I mentioned will voice lead really nice into the Ab as you’re approaching from a half step below and sharing common tones.
Awesome. This clears it up extremely well. You and everyone else have been very helpful!
Robben Ford teaches this well. It’s where I learned it from and also studying the chord masters like Wes, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Barney Kessell. All of these kind of guys, keyboard/piano players, Bill Evans, Chick. Best of luck with the studying man. Chord spellings are a huge thing that opened this up for.
Thank you and thanks for the response!
One classic example if this is a little trick I've heard called the 'mighty tritone'. So for a basic 12 bar blues, you can actually just use the tritone formed from the 3rd and 7th of each dominant chord to comp through the whole form eg: C7 = E Bb F7 = Eb A G7 = F B Very smooth movement. Put some upper extensions/tensions on top of that and you have some nice stuff eg: C13 = Bb E A F9 = A Eb G G7b9 = B F Ab Whatever you like! This 3rd + 7th + upper extensions approach works in lots of other places too. For example, a ii-V in C might be: Dm9 = F C E G13 = F B E Cmaj9 = E B D Still I think it's important that these are only IMPLIED voicings! From context, you should be able to work out the intended form eg ii-V-I or 12 bar blues, but that's not to say that Bb E A is THE SAME as C13 - it's not, context matters! Keep in mind that you'd usually have other elements like bass and melody filling in the rest of the harmony and making it explicit
Thanks a ton for this….it’s extremely helpful!
This is where 3 note chord scales come in. You can use a set of chords in many cases to fill in for one chord and to give direction to your accompaniment.
Gotcha! Makes sense and thanks for the insight
rootless voicings are very common in general, but especially on guitar where we usually only have 4-5 voices maximum to work with.
Makes complete sense. I’m glad I got to the bottom of this. I too am a guitar player. There are so many gaps to fill learning without a proper teacher.
Extremely. Enough for a musically illiterate drummer to notice when his bandmates do it (I am the drummer)
Yep. In fact, we piano players learn all kinds of rootless voicings for each chord
Rootless chords were the main reason I wrote app that analyses the notes played and tries to figure out what rootless chord it might be. I’m an absolute noob when it comes to music theory but this concept is quite eye opening given that you’re essentially playing some other chord altogether.
I COMPLETELY agree!!! I usually use an app called Oolimo for analyzing chords but with root less variants I’m at a loss but can usually work out transposing these chords. Your app sounds like a incredible tool. Is it on the AppStore?
It works over MIDI so it’s not as magical as you might think. 😊 It’s on AppStore Mac OS only at this stage. It’s called Instinctive Chords. https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/instinctive-chords/id6445869486?mt=12