Jazz Piano Chords: Chord Chart, Voicings, and Progressions

Jazz piano chords are seventh chords rather than triads: where a pop pianist plays C major as C-E-G, a jazz pianist starts from Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B) and often adds a ninth on top. Five seventh-chord types account for most of the symbols on a lead sheet, and three ways of voicing them (shell, rootless and quartal) cover most playing situations. Below you will find a chord chart, the voicings written out note by note, the ii-V-I in three keys and a practice plan.

The Five Seventh Chords: A Jazz Piano Chord Chart

Most chord symbols in a standard are built on one of these five four-note chords, spelled here from C.

Major seventh (maj7)

Cmaj7 is bright and stable, with no pull toward another chord, so it serves as the home chord (I) and as the IV chord in major keys. When the melody sits on the root, pianists often use C6 (C-E-G-A) instead, because a B under a C melody note clashes.

Dominant seventh (7)

G7 is G-B-D-F. Its third and seventh, B and F, form a tritone that wants to resolve: B rises to C, F falls to E, and the ear lands on C major. The dominant creates the forward motion in jazz harmony, and it is the chord that takes the most alterations (♭9, ♯9, ♯11, ♭13).

Minor seventh (m7)

Dm7 is D-F-A-C. It works as the ii chord in major keys and as a tonic in modal tunes. “So What” on Miles Davis‘s Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) stays on D minor for the first 16 bars of its 32-bar AABA form, moves up a half step to E♭ minor for the bridge and returns.

Half-diminished (m7♭5 or ø)

Bø7 is B-D-F-A, the ii chord of a minor key. In “Autumn Leaves” played in G minor, the cadence into the tonic is Am7♭5-D7-Gm.

Diminished seventh (dim7 or °7)

Four stacked minor thirds: Bdim7 is B-D-F-A♭. Because the intervals are equal, any of its notes can act as the root. As a passing chord it links diatonic chords by half step (Cmaj7, C♯dim7, Dm7 walks the bass C, C♯, D). As a dominant substitute, Bdim7 over a G in the bass is G7♭9 without its root.

Extensions: Adding 9ths, 11ths and 13ths

Extensions are the chord tones above the seventh: the 9th is the 2nd, the 11th the 4th and the 13th the 6th, one octave up. They turn Cmaj7 into Cmaj9 (C-E-G-B-D) or G7 into G13.

• 9th: fits major, minor and dominant chords (Cmaj9, Dm9, G9). On a dominant you can also flatten it (G7♭9, with A♭) or sharpen it (G7♯9, with A♯).
• 11th: sounds good on minor seventh chords (Dm11 adds G). On major and dominant chords it sits a half step above the major third and clashes with it, so pianists raise it to ♯11 (Cmaj7♯11 with F♯, the Lydian sound) or drop the third and play a sus chord (G7sus4: G-C-D-F).
• 13th: the natural 13th (E on G7) is the standard color on a dominant. The ♭13 (E♭) goes with ♭9 and ♯9 in altered dominants, most often resolving to a minor tonic.

A full G13 has seven notes (G-B-D-F-A-C-E). Played at once it sounds thick and the C clashes with the B, so pianists leave out the root (the bass player has it), the fifth and the 11th, and keep the third, seventh, ninth and thirteenth.

Guide Tones: The Two Notes That Define a Chord

The third and seventh, called guide tones, tell the ear whether a chord is major, minor or dominant. In a ii-V-I they either hold or move by a half step. In C major (Dm7-G7-Cmaj7) the pairs are F-C, F-B and E-B: the F of Dm7 holds as the seventh of G7 while C slides down to B, then F slides down to E while B holds as the seventh of Cmaj7. Practice these two-note shapes over the root before adding anything else.

Jazz Piano Voicings: Shell, Rootless and Quartal

A voicing is the choice and order of the notes you actually play for a chord symbol.

Shell voicings

Shells are two-note left-hand shapes: root plus seventh, or root plus third (often played as a tenth if your hand can stretch that far), while the right hand plays the melody or a solo. Bud Powell (1924-1966) kept his left hand this sparse under fast bebop lines, often playing just root and tenth or root and minor seventh, and Mark Levine’s The Jazz Piano Book teaches the shapes as “Bud Powell voicings”. A smooth ii-V-I in C:

• Dm7: D and C (root and seventh)
• G7: G and B (root and third)
• Cmaj7: C and B (root and seventh)

The upper note moves from C to B and then holds, the guide-tone movement described above. With two notes per chord, shells are the easiest jazz piano chords for beginners, and they leave room for a bassist or guitarist.

Rootless voicings (A and B forms)

Rootless voicings give the root to the bass and put four notes in the left hand: the two guide tones plus two colors. Bill Evans (1929-1980) worked this way, leaving the root to his bassist and moving between chords with very little hand movement; his 1959 to 1961 trio with Scott LaFaro is a good place to hear it. The A form puts the third at the bottom, the B form the seventh:

• Dm7: A form F-A-C-E (3-5-7-9); B form C-E-F-A (7-9-3-5)
• G7: A form B-E-F-A (3-13-7-9); B form F-A-B-E (7-9-3-13)
• Cmaj7: A form E-G-B-D (3-5-7-9); B form B-D-E-G (7-9-3-5)

In a ii-V-I you alternate the forms so the hand barely moves: A-B-A gives F-A-C-E, F-A-B-E, E-G-B-D, and B-A-B gives C-E-F-A, B-E-F-A, B-D-E-G. Keep these voicings around middle C; an octave lower, the close intervals turn muddy.

Quartal voicings

Quartal voicings stack fourths instead of thirds. Over Dm7, D-G-C-F gives the root, 11th, seventh and third. Add an A on top and you get D-G-C-F-A, three perfect fourths plus a major third: the So What chord, named after the voicing Bill Evans played on “So What” (recorded March 2, 1959). Because fourth stacks do not spell out major or minor clearly, they suit modal tunes where one chord lasts many bars. McCoy Tyner, the pianist in John Coltrane’s quartet, voiced chords most characteristically in fourths; hear it on A Love Supreme (Impulse!, recorded December 9, 1964).

The ii-V-I Progression on Piano in Three Keys

The ii-V-I is extremely common in jazz standards, often several times per tune in different keys, so it pays to learn it in all 12 keys. Here is the A-B-A rootless pattern in C, F and B♭:

• C major (Dm7-G7-Cmaj7): F-A-C-E, F-A-B-E, E-G-B-D
• F major (Gm7-C7-Fmaj7): B♭-D-F-A, B♭-D-E-A, A-C-E-G
• B♭ major (Cm7-F7-B♭maj7): E♭-G-B♭-D, E♭-G-A-D, D-F-A-C

In every key one note moves from ii to V, and three move by step from V to I. “Autumn Leaves” contains both kinds of cadence: a ii-V-I followed by the IV chord, then a half-diminished chord leading into the relative minor. In G minor that is Cm7-F7-B♭maj7-E♭maj7, then Am7♭5-D7-Gm. The Bill Evans Trio recorded it on Portrait in Jazz (Riverside, December 28, 1959).

The minor ii-V-i

In C minor the progression is Dm7♭5-G7♭9-Cm6 or Cm(maj7). The ♭9 of G7 is A♭, which belongs to the C minor scale, so the altered dominant sounds natural here. A practical left-hand set: Dm7♭5 as F-A♭-C-D, G7♭9 as F-A♭-B-D (the same notes as Bdim7), resolving to Cm(maj7) as E♭-G-B-D.

Other Jazz Chord Progressions to Learn on Piano

The I-vi-ii-V turnaround. Cmaj7-Am7-Dm7-G7 loops back to the top of a form. Pianists often make the vi chord dominant (A7) and replace A7 and G7 with their tritone substitutes: Cmaj7-E♭7-Dm7-D♭7. A tritone substitute shares its third and seventh with the original chord (G7 has B and F, D♭7 has F and C♭), so the guide tones stay put while the bass walks down E♭, D, D♭ to C.

The jazz blues. A 12-bar blues with the IV chord in bar 2, a secondary dominant in bar 8 and a ii-V in bars 9 and 10. In F: F7 | B♭7 | F7 | F7 | B♭7 | B♭7 | F7 | D7 | Gm7 | C7 | F7 | C7. Charlie Parker‘s “Billie’s Bounce” (Savoy, 1945) is an F blues; “Freddie Freeloader” on Kind of Blue is a B♭ blues, with Wynton Kelly on piano instead of Bill Evans.

Rhythm changes and modal vamps. Rhythm changes are the chords of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” (1930): I-vi-ii-V in the A sections and a bridge of D7-G7-C7-F7 in B♭, two bars each. Modal tunes do the opposite and hold one chord for many bars; Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” (Blue Note, 1965) uses only suspended chords, two per eight-bar section. The turnarounds and blues forms are covered in more detail in our guide to common jazz chord progressions.

Comping: Putting Rhythm Into the Chords

Comping means playing chords behind a soloist or singer, and the voicings above only sound like jazz once they are placed rhythmically. A good starting pattern is the Charleston rhythm, named after James P. Johnson’s 1923 song “The Charleston”: a dotted quarter on beat 1 and an eighth note on the “and” of 2. Clap it, then play it with one rootless voicing, then through a ii-V-I. With swung eighths the second hit lands late in the beat, which gives the figure its push. Then vary it: anticipate the next chord on the “and” of 4, leave a bar empty when the soloist is busy, and avoid repeating one rhythm bar after bar.

Bossa nova tunes such as Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema” (1962) call for straight eighths and a two-bar syncopated pattern. When your right hand plays the melody, the left hand comps alone with shells or rootless voicings; in a duo without bass, put the guide tones in the left hand and the extensions in the right.

How Jazz Piano Harmony Developed

Stride piano, the style of James P. Johnson (1894-1955) and Fats Waller, let one pianist cover bass and chords: a bass note, octave or tenth on beats 1 and 3 and a chord on 2 and 4. Thelonious Monk learned stride from a neighbor and kept it in his playing, but on his Blue Note recordings of 1947 to 1952 he added flat ninths, flat fifths, whole-tone runs and seconds that sound almost accidental. In the bebop era Bud Powell’s left hand used sparse shells under fast right-hand lines. From the late 1950s, Bill Evans’s rootless voicings and McCoy Tyner’s chords in fourths added the other two systems on this page; Tyner’s approach influenced Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John Hicks and Kenny Barron. More on these players is in our list of the greatest jazz pianists.

How to Practice Jazz Piano Chords in 30 Minutes a Day

1. Chord spelling (5 minutes): play the five seventh chords from the chart on the root of the day, then Dorian on the ii chord, Mixolydian on the V and the major scale on the I. Our overview of jazz scales pairs each chord type with its scales.
2. ii-V-I voicings (10 minutes): shells, then rootless A-B-A and B-A-B, in one new key per day. Move around the cycle of fourths (C, F, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, B, E, A, D, G) to cover all 12 keys in 12 days, with a metronome at a slow tempo.
3. Comping (8 minutes): loop a ii-V-I or a jazz blues in a play-along app such as iReal Pro (iOS, Android, Mac and Windows) and apply the Charleston rhythm without playing the root.
4. Transcription (7 minutes): take a two-bar phrase of comping from a record by Evans, Powell, Tyner or another pianist you like, slow it down with software that keeps the pitch, and find the voicing on the keys. It is also a direct route into jazz improvisation.

For further study, Mark Levine’s The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989) goes much deeper into three-note and left-hand voicings, sus chords, tritone substitution, block chords and comping. Levine (1938-2022), a pianist and trombonist, also wrote The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between jazz piano chords and regular piano chords?

Pop and rock piano parts are mostly built on three-note triads, while jazz starts from four-note seventh chords and adds 9ths, 11ths and 13ths for color. Jazz pianists also often leave the root to the bass player and build the chord on its third and seventh.

What are the easiest jazz piano chords for beginners?

Two-note shell voicings in the left hand: root plus seventh, or root plus third. A ii-V-I in C with shells is D and C for Dm7, G and B for G7, and C and B for Cmaj7. Once those feel easy, add the melody in the right hand or move on to rootless voicings.

Which jazz chord progressions should I learn first on piano?

The major ii-V-I and the minor ii-V-i in all 12 keys, followed by the I-vi-ii-V turnaround and the 12-bar jazz blues. Those four patterns cover a large share of the harmony in common jazz standards.

How many jazz piano voicings do I need to learn?

A workable core is the two rootless forms (A and B) for minor seventh, dominant seventh and major seventh chords in all 12 keys, which comes to 72 shapes. The pattern repeats in every key, so it is less work than the number suggests.