The 'Three Note Secret'

When you are first learning music theory and how chords are put together, many people have the idea that you have to play all the notes in a chord. So, for instance, you might play a C7 like so:

in root position, playing all four notes. Then, you might ask yourself, how can I play a 9 or #11 or 13? I can’t play all of those notes at once!

That may be one reason why people can be intimidated by keyboards - they make it more difficult that it is!

The fact of the matter is, that it is just as easy to play good-sounding voicings as it is to play childish, basic voicings. Much easier, even; because when you use good voicings, they are designed to connect smoothly together and your hand does not jump all over the place as it would if you were playing basic root-position voicings.

The secret to good voicings? I call it the ‘Three Note Secret’ - you can play any basic (non-extension - 9, 11, 13) voicing using only three notes - one in the left hand and two in the right.
And they sound way better that using all of the notes in the chord.

In my curriculum we talk about 3-7 shells - that is, playing only the third and the seventh of a chord. This gives you all the information you need to know about a chord - whether it’s major or minor, and what the seventh quality is. The root and fifth you can leave out - the root because either the bass player will be playing it or you will be playing it in your left hand, and the fifth because it is ‘perfect’ - that is, it is stable and does not change when the quality of the chord changes.
or you can flip it and play
with the 7th on the bottom.

So, if you wanted to play that C7 that we talked about at the top of the article, instead of playing 1-3-5-7 (C, E, G, Bb) you would play the E and Bb only. Then you would play the root in the left hand, and that would give you 3 notes in total. With these 3 notes you can play an astonishing array of chord changes - and it’s so much easier than trying to play them the old way - all four notes with the root at the bottom! Plus, it sounds a million times better.

Here is an exercise that will help you get familiar with the ‘Three Note Secret’. It is a cycle of 2-5-1 changes which will take you around all of the keys.
(double-click on image for large printable)