About this article
In this article I will tell you what Upper Structure Chords are and how to effectively use them in your playing.
Examples for how upper structure chords are used
The following video gives 4 short examples for how Upper Structure Chords can be used in different jazz and pop music genres.
As you could see in the video, those Upper Structure Chords are a great devices for creating beautiful voicings with ease.
By the way, those Upper Structure Chords are not only helpful to our keyboard playing. Skilled music arrangers and improvisers use them as well.
What is an Upper Structure Chord?
An Upper Structure Chord (USC) is a chord (often just a major, minor, diminished, or augmented triad) that includes chordal extensions or tensions (for example 9, 11, 13).
Why do we use Upper Structure Chords (USCs)
USCs helps us think, read, write and performing chords (harmony) more easily. Also, they are sometimes simply the best choice for writing certain chords who otherwise can only be expressed with a complex regular chord symbol.
The two different Types of Upper Structure Chords
An USC can either be placed above a single bass note which makes it a Slash Chord, or an other chord (called Lower Structure Chord = LSC) making it a Poly Chord.
USC - Type 1: Upper Structure Slash Chord
An USC placed on top of a single bass note that is not part of the chord is called an Upper Structure Slash Chord.
For example C/F = [C major triad] over [bass note F]. F is not part of a C major triad!
When the bass note is a pitch that is also found in the USC, the result is simply an Inversion. For example, C/E is the slash chord for the 1st inversion of a C major triad.
IMPORTANT: We may call C/E a Slash Chord, but calling it an Upper Structure Slash Chord would be wrong. (See above example.)
USC - Type 2: Poly Chord
An USC placed on top of an other chord (LSC = Lower Structure Chord) is called a Poly Chord. The USC and the LSC are written on top of one another and separated by a horizontal line as shown below.
Here is a short video that shows you how Oscar Peterson used Upper Structure Chords in his improvisations. A MUST SEE!
The following video is yet an other example for how Upper Structure Chords can be useful specifically in combination with broken chord runs and arpeggios.
The upper structure example starts at 4:20.
Tip: You might get a lot of interesting ideas out of watching the entire video, especially when you like to improvise with broken chords and arpeggios made from triads!
Poly Chords for Extended Dominant Seventh Chords
One of the most common application of the USC idea is for creating voicings of Dominant Seventh Chords.
Below is a table that shows Poly Chords for a C7 chord with major and minor Upper Structure Triads based on different scale degrees.
Tip: By memorizing the distance between the root notes of the LSC (C7) and USC and the triad's quality for each of those chords we can make playing complex dominant seventh chords in any key much easier.
Below is the same table of Dominant Seventh Chords shown above, only this time written with Nashville Chord Symbols, which shows the chord symbols and poly chords key independent.
Example for how to use this table
Let's say you want to play F13(311). Looking at the above table, we find this chord in bar 2.
The poly chord gives us the following instructions:
1. Find the root note of the Upper Structure Chord by going up a whole step from the root note of the F13#11) chord. Going up a whole step from F is G.
2. Build a major triad based on G
3. Play a F7 shall voicing (F, A, Eb) in the left hand as the Lower Structure Chord (LSC) and play a G major triad (G, B, D) on top with your right hand. Note: It doesn't matter in which position (inversion) you plat the USC!
Note: It doesn't matter in which position (inversion) you plat the USC!