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2,935 Posts
Hello!!
I'm with Drew, start with diatonic fourth voicings, but on other important way of applying them is to experiment with how they sound on top of different root notes, which is how a lot of jazz pianists seem to use them. For example, let an open A note ring, and try moving a quintal voicing up chromatically to see where the nicest voicings are...
e---3----4----5---6---7----
b---3----4----5---6---7----
G---2----3----4---5---6----
D---2----3----4---5---6----
A---0----0----0---0---0----
E----------------------------
etc.
Obviously some of these won't be practical, but there're some really cool sounds lurking in here. For instance, one of my favourite ways of playing 6/9 chords is like this...
D6/9
e-------5--------fifth
b-------5-------ninth
G-------4-------sixth
D-------4-------third
A------(5)-------
E---------------
The bracketed note represents the implied root, which the bassist or keyboard player would usually add. Rootless voicings like this are a lot of fun to experiment with, and sound great in a band context.
