August 16, 2026
About the Author: Reuben
Two-handed chords can be difficult to sculpt on the piano. Avoiding unnecessary notes while shaping a good voicing can feel like a stab in the dark, and in the heat of the moment can be very challenging to improvise on the spot.
Improvising chord voicings is only possible with prior knowledge and fluency on a variety of chord shapes.
Today we will look at the method of Thumbs Voicings.
This method is one of many that allow you to make well-crafted two-handed chord voicings that can easily transition from one chord to the next.
These will prove useful in all forms of jazz piano, and provide a useful exercise in building pattern memory in your hands.
This method takes the form of 3 steps.
Step 1: Guide Tones
The guide tones are the two most crucial notes in a jazz chord other than the root.
The guide tones are specifically the 3rd (the note that dictates major/minor tonality) and the 7th or 6th (the note that dictates function).
If you play a 7th chord, and either the root, 3rd or 7th is missing from the chord, then something functional will be missing, and the chord will technically be incomplete.
While it is not necessary to have these three notes in every single chord you play, for this exercise we will be using all of them, as a way of practicing identifying these critical notes in every chord.
For Thumbs Voicings, you will play one guide tone in each thumb, roughly a 4th/5th apart, in the region around middle C.
You can either have the 3rd in the left and the 7th in the right, or vice versa.
Here is an example below for a C7 chord.
Remember to keep these notes exclusively in your thumbs.
Be very clear on what the guide tones should be for each chord, as these dramatically alter the function of a chord, and there is no room for error!
Step 2: Root
This step is the easiest of the three.
With the remaining fingers in your left hand, find the root of your chord underneath the bottom guide tone.
If you have the 3rd in your left thumb, then the root will be under your 2nd/3rd finger.
If you have the 7th in your left thumb, then the root will be further down and require your 5th finger to play.
Here are the two options for the previous example chord:
At this point, the three notes you have will give you the exact chord you are trying to play, in its most barebones form.
This forms an effective stable base for what you want to add on top of the chord.
Step 3: Extensions
There are many different extensions you can put on top of a chord.
Some add colour, others add tension.
Having these options can be confusing at first, so for this exercise we will only be using the 5th and the 9th (equivalent to the 2nd).
The benefit of being able to find these two extensions is that they work for every natural chord, and so you don’t need to pick and choose them like the other extensions.
With the remaining fingers in your right hand, locate the 5th and the 9th above your thumb.
Depending on which guide tone is in your right thumb, either the 5th or the 9th will be just two notes away from your thumb.
The other extension will be a further three or four notes away.
Below are the resulting shapes:
Having completed these three steps, you now have a perfectly sculpted two-handed voicing! By only using the 5th and the 9th for extensions, you give yourself only two possible shapes.
Repeat these steps on multiple chords.
Gm7, Fmaj7, D7, Am7 are good chords to work through, as they will be relevant in the next section.
Forming Sequences
Half of the magic in Thumbs Voicings is in the strong sound they make.
They are however also perfect for stringing sequences of chords together, as the guide tones and extensions are positioned in such a way that they can transition to a related chord economically.
For this exercise, we are going to use a 2-5-1 major perfect cadence as our sequence.
We will do this first in the key of F major.
Your three chords for this will be Gm7 – C7 – Fmaj7.
Start by forming a Thumbs Voicing for a Gm7 using the above steps (as chord 2 of your F major cadence).
It does not matter whether you have the 3rd in your left or right thumb, but it will affect which order your thumbs go in for the rest of the cadence!
To make this next part easier to understand, we are going to label your voicing shapes A and B to determine which one you are playing:
To go from Gm7 to C7 (chord 5), you will be looking to move your fingers as little as possible.
Go through the three steps for C7, but take care to look for notes that carry over from the Gm7 chord, as you will not want to move these.
If you used shape A for the Gm7 chord, then you will use shape B for the C7 chord, and then shape A for the Fmaj7 chord.
The opposite is also the case, so you will either be going A-B-A or B-A-B as far as shapes are concerned.
It may be easier at first to focus on the shapes and write out the exact notes this entails, as it is easy at this point to lose track of where your thumbs belong, or which thumb is on which guide tone!
Rinse and repeat this process to get from C7 to Fmaj7, and the result should be one of these two combinations of chords:
By playing either of these combinations of voicings, you will have utilised good voice-leading between each chord, and created three strong hits.
This method can be put in any key, where it will generate the same two-shape system.
From here, you can experiment with other extensions, or try and use them on actual tunes!
Autumn in New York and Tea for Two and both tunes that work well under this system of chord playing, but these voicings will also be good food for thought when writing your own music.
Ready to take your jazz piano playing further?
Discover personalised jazz piano lessons at the London Piano Institute and develop greater confidence, fluency and creativity at the keyboard.
Related Articles:
RELATED POSTS
