How to Play Shell Voicings on Guitar

So far in this series we’ve looked at how we can better our jazz guitar playing by
learning a range of chords available to us on the guitar such as quartal voicings,
diminished shapes, closed-position chords and symmetrical diminished voicings
amongst many others.

Shell voicings are perhaps the most versatile jazz guitar chords, because these voicings
can be as simple or as complex as desired. Jazz/country guitarist Danny Gatton refers to
these voicings as the ‘two note wonder’ because in their 2 note simple forms these
chords will work in almost in situation. In today’s lesson I will be showing you how to
play shell voicings on guitar.

The two note wonder is just simply a chord voicing that only contains the two guide
tone notes that define the chord.

So for example a two note Cmaj7 shell voicing contain the two guide tones needed to
make that chord; E the major third and B the major 7th. The root can be also be added if
needed. The example below shows how these shell voicings look with each of the three
main chord types; major 7th, dominant 7th and a minor 7th chord.

Notice that there is two ways for each chord type to be played on the middle strings, and
the notes are just reversed for each one.

Practice shell voicings in all 12 keys across the neck and remember you can always add
the root for as a reference point to remember what chord you are playing.

 
 Shell Chord Extensions

The simple construction and easy fingering of these chords make it very easy to add
desired extensions which are particularly useful for dominant 7th chords because of the
many alternations that occur within them.

When I first began learning to play jazz guitar, I didn’t know many chords and would
always see extended chords on charts that I didn’t know how to play on the spot Almost
every time I was quickly able to find the extensions I needed by adding notes to these
shell chords.

Check out the example below for all the possible extensions you can add to the
dominant 7th shell chords whilst still keeping the 3rd and 7th in place.

Possible Dominant 7th Chord Shell Extentions

Knowing these extensions will enable you to be able to create any possible dominant 7th
extension on the spot by only changing or adding one or two notes.

Shell voicings can also be used for effective voice leading and passing movement on
static chords by changing extensions chromatically.

 
 Applying Shell Chords to Tunes

The plain two note dominant 7th voicings can sound very effective and work well in a
wide array of jazz ensemble settings.

Because they are just thirds and seventh’s you can sometimes use them when you’re
comping with a pianist and there won’t be any clashing of extensions because you are
only playing the meat of the chord.

Two note voicings are also great to use in conjunction with single line soloing in a solo
or duo setting because bigger chords are often trickier to grab and your single line
soloing could sound more empty when you stop using them.

Check out the following example to see how to use the shell voicings over a 12 bar
blues using the Charleston rhythm.

Note when using them over II-V’s there is only note that changes.

12 Bar Jazz Blues with Shell Voicings

Have fun with these voicings and experiment to see how can you use them in your own
playing.
Remember to listen to player’s like Ed Bickert and Lenny Breau who use these types of
chords all the time in thier comping and with their single line playing to create a very
pianist approach to their solos.

Purchase the “30 Days to Better Jazz Guitar Comping Ebook” with 20 pages of extra
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What do you think about using shell voicings? Share your thoughts in the comment
section below.

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