Quartal Voicings are chords built on diatonic 4ths. Quartal Voicings also have a very Jazz oriented sound.

Most of the chords that we’re used to hearing (maj, min, dim, aug, maj7, 7, m7, m7b5, dim7 and all of their extensions.) are Tertiary Chords - built on 3rds.

Let’s say we take a Cm7 chord (II in the key of Bb) and examine its construction we’ll see that each interval is a diatonic 3rd above the previous interval: C -b3- Eb -3- G -b3- Bb. Whilst you needn’t (and probably wouldn’t) voice Cm7 in this way, this is how the chord is constructed. It is also the same way that all of the aforementioned common chord types are constructed.

This way of constructing and naming chords results in the common functions that we’re familiar with. They have major 3rds, 5ths, 7ths and you shouldn’t play a minor chord when you should be playing a major chord etc. Quartal voicing are much much more ambiguous and as such there are less rules regarding when you can use them. In fact the only rule (and this can be broken) is that you use Quartal Voicings from the key that you are in.

Let’s examine a Quartal Voicing built from the note of C in the same way as we did the Tertiary Cm7 above: C -4- F -4- Bb -4- Eb. If we do this with every note in the key then we will have 7 Quartal Voicings.

So now we can construct Quartal Voicings, how do we use them?

• I like to use them as a succession of ascending or descending chords for effect,

• To harmonise the highest note in the voicing in a ‘Jazzy’ way,

• To roll out whenever I’m playing on one chord for a long time such as the first 4 bars of a blues like ‘All Blues’ or on a modal vamp such as in ‘So What’ (in fact it was on ‘Kind of Blue by Miles Davis that Bill Evans first popularised these kinds of chords).

These voicings are very much an effect and very rarely do they satisfy the criteria necessary to play a Tertiary chord.

Below are the 7 Quartal Voicings for C Dorian (Bb major). I’ve included Root notes as an opaque ‘R’ where the root note isn’t in the voicing and as a full red ‘R’ where it is in the voicing. This way you’ll be able to relate every voicing to the key of C Dorian. Remember the ‘Root note’ in this instance is that of the key you’re in (C Dorian) not of a particular chord.

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