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VOL. 1
All possible Upper Structure
Quartals over IIm7 and V7.

(Exercises for each and every key in all inversions) 196 pages.

EXAMPLE OF "DARN THAT DREAM" REHARM USING USQ VOICINGS

"Darn that Dream". Piano solo score
FREE PDF DOWNLOAD

For a jazz piano player, chord voicings is an essential skill, not only for comping (accompanying or laying the chord progression for other players to improvise in) but also to use those voicings as an improvisational aid. All piano players get many melodic ideas or lines from their voicings. There are many ways of practicing and developing a Jazz voicing language.

Quartals as Structures
Quartal voicings have become a standard in modern jazz. Their ambiguity in sound allows the jazz player to travel through unexpected paths, sometimes deceiving, sometimes surprising the listener with their unresolved quality. Although quartals are often used in improvisation and comping, it is not surprising that there is no standard chord notation for them due to its lack of harmonic direction (or function) and consequentially rarely used by composers as a source in their compositions.

Scope of the books in this collection
It is crucial to understand that although quartal harmony is of great significance in modern jazz, quartal structures will not be considered as a harmonic source in this book but only as upper structures superimposed on top of tonal/standard harmonic progressions (harmony based on 3rds).

Practicing with the books in this collection
Each exercise targets a specific upper structure triad or a progression using USTs and is introduced by a graph of the UST (or pair of USTs in the case of a IIm-V7 progression) with all its properties (Tensions, Chord Tones, suggested mental picture and other info).

A log is included which permit the students to organize their practice routine in blocks of 2 weeks. Student should write the starting day for that block and keep track of their practice on that topic every day. At the end of the block the student should write comments, end date and rate the UST voicing for later use and review.

Decoding the Circle of Vths
All possible quartals were found and studied using the Decoding the Circle of Fifths Chart/System. You can find out more about this system following this link: Decoding the Circle of Fifths.

To give you a better idea on how to use the logs, an example form is demonstrated in this link: (Click here the see a Demo Page)

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
UST Jazz Piano Chord Voicings Vol. 1
$24.95

UST Jazz Piano Chord Voicings Vol. 2 to 9 Compact
$32.95

UST Jazz Piano Chord Voicings Vol.2 to 9 Extended
$45.95