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Quartal Voicings

Quartal voicings are built by stacking perfect fourths rather than the thirds of conventional (tertian) harmony. Because they sidestep the third — the note that decides whether a chord is major or minor — they have a modern, open, deliberately ambiguous sound. It's the texture most associated with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and post-bop piano.

The shape

How quartal voicings work

Start on any note and stack perfect fourths upward. A three-note quartal voicing on C is C–F–B♭; add another fourth on top and you get the four-note C–F–B♭–E♭. Notice what's missing: there is no third, so the voicing never commits to major or minor. It floats. That open quality is the whole point — quartal harmony suggests a tonal center without nailing down its color, which is exactly why it works so well over modal material.

Three- and four-note quartal voicing on C — C, F, B♭, E♭

In context

When to use it

Reach for quartal voicings over minor chords (especially the i chord in a minor key), suspended chords, and modal tunes where you want to avoid defining the chord quality. The classic reference is “So What” (Miles Davis), whose piano voicing is a stack of fourths topped with a third — and anything sitting in a Dorian or Phrygian context responds well to the same treatment. Use them where harmonic ambiguity is an asset, not where you need a chord to sound decisively major or minor.

The “So What” voicing — four stacked fourths topped with a third (C, F, B♭, E♭, G)

At the keyboard

Piano technique

Quartal voicings work beautifully in the left hand underneath a right-hand melody, or as a self-contained solo-piano texture. For a fuller sound, play two-hand quartal voicings: the left hand takes one stack of fourths and the right hand takes another stack a fourth or fifth higher. Keep the spacing even — the consistency of the interval is what gives the sound its identity. Move the whole shape in parallel up and down the scale to harmonize a modal melody.

Try it

The quartal voicing in any key

The four-note stack of fourths keeps its shape in every key — only the lowest note changes. Pick a root to slide the same voicing around the keyboard and see (and read on the staff) the notes it produces.