eg a ee CHAPTER FOURTEEN 3 Upper Structures Upper structures basic lay figure 14-1, an arrangement of the first few bars of “Stella By Starlight,” and listen to the ‘sound of upper structure chords. All of the chords except the C-7 chord on the first beat of the third bar are voiced with upper structures. There are nine different upper structure chords. The first section of this chapter will concentrate on the four shown in figure 14-2. A. good definition of an upper structure is “a triad over a tritone." Look at the first upper structure in figure 14-2, a D triad over E and Bb, the third and seventh, or tritone, of a C7 chord. The three notes of the D triad (D, F#, A) are the ninth, +l, and thirteenth of the C7+Il chord. Try finding this same voicing on F7+I. Did you play a G major triad ‘over A and Eb? Did you know to play a G triad because on the C7+II chord the D triad is a major second above C? That's why this chord is called upper structure I, because the root of the triad is a major second above the root of the V chord. The upper structure number refers to the interval between the root of the triad and the root of the dominant chord. Each upper structure number is _ shown below the Figure 14-1 chord in Roman numerals. Upper Eo A7b9 o7 F7 ‘structure Il is played on V7+ll chords. Figure 14-2 +t C7+11 C7alt C7b9 c7b9 bg W bv vi #1V minor RULES: |) Inversion of triad and/or tritone OK. ee 3 Doubled notes OK at or near top of voicing only. 109