Spacing the Chord

The way we have played so far certainly is not bad sounding but not yet professional. It seems to lack a certain richness.

What do the pros do to make the chords sound fuller?

Let's play a simple chord progression 2 different ways and listen to the effects of each.

So far we have played triads in a chosed position.
3 notes are as close as possible to each other. No space in between.
Even when we inverted the chord, it remained in a closed position.
The chord tones are as close as possible to each other.



Fake books leave chord voicing decision up to the performer.
The style and the tempo , the sound quality, plus his or her own technical or physical limitations will all affect a player's choice of voicings.

Wide open chord voicing with a large gap filled in between the bass note and the highest note, tends to give us a richer, more orchestral sound.

This allows us to use our 2 hands in a more balanced fashion rather than always sticking to a melody in the right hand and bass in the left hand formula.

The most common way of opening a chord and one which provides a warm, resonant sonority is to have wide spaces between chord tones in the bass and narrrow ones towards the treble.

We avoid putting the 3rd directly above the root when the bass note is low, otherwise we would produce a muddy sound.


The concept of spacing out the chord tones can be applied when the otes are all playing simultaneously in block fashion or in succession, ie. arpeggiated.