So What chord

In jazz and jazz harmony, a So What chord is a particular 5-note chord voicing such as employed by Bill Evans in the "'amen' response figure"^[1] to the head of the tune "So What".

For example, an 'Em' "So What" chord (see second example) is an Em7 sus4 voicing^[2], or as a polychord:

$\frac {G/D}{A5/E}$

From the top note downwards, it consists of a major third interval followed by three perfect fourth intervals. The So What chord is often used as an alternative to quartal voicings and may be used in diatonic and chromatic planing^[2], and is identical to the standard tuning of a guitar's bottom five strings (minus the top E-string). It is essentially a minor eleventh chord (-11, m11), arranged as it would be played on a guitar (root, 4th, ♭7th, ♭3rd, 5th, or voiced like this: x77787, or without the 5th, like this: x7778x).

It may also be thought of as a five-note quartal chord (built from fourths) with the top note lowered by a semitone. More modern sounding than "tertial chords" (built from thirds), it is useful in comping; since the structure of quartal harmony is usually vague, many roots may be applied to the So What chord and it may work well in various contexts including, "a major scale context; a Mixolydian mode context; or a minor context"^[3]. For example, the E chord described above can also be C6Δ9, Asus4^7⁹, G6⁹, Dsus2^{4^{6 [no 7]}}, F^lydian (FΔ9♯11^{13 [no 5]}) or F♯^phrygian (F♯m7♭9^{11♭13 [no 5]}).

Other jazz recordings that make extensive use of the chord include McCoy Tyner's "Peresina" and Gary Burton's "Gentle Wind and Falling Tear." Tyner's use of similar voicings was an early influence on Chick Corea; it can be heard in tunes such as "Steps" and "Matrix" (both featured on his landmark album "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs").

The term "So What chord" is used extensively in Mark Levine's landmark work The Jazz Piano Book, wherein he describes a range of uses for which the voicing might be employed. Frank Mantooth dedicated two chapters to the chord under the name "Miracle voicing" in his work Voicings for Jazz Keyboard.

Bibliography

Levine, Mark "The Jazz Piano Book" 1989 Sher Music Co., Petaluma, CA ISBN 0-9614701-5-1.
Mantooth, Frank "Voicings for Jazz Keyboard" 1986 Hal Leonard Publishing Corp., Milwaukee, WI ISBN 0-7935-3485-2.

Sources

^ John Robert Brown (2004). Mel Bay's Concise History of Jazz, p.146. ISBN 0786649836.
^ ^a ^b Rawlins, Robert and Eddine Bahha, Nor (2005). Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians, p.81. ISBN 0634086782.
^ Martan Mann (1997). Improvising Blues Piano, p.81. ISBN 0825616247.

Chords

By type

Triad	Major Minor Augmented Diminished Suspended

Seventh	Major Minor Dominant Dominant seventh flat five Diminished Half-diminished Diminished major Minor-major Augmented major Augmented minor Nondominant Harmonic seventh chord

Extended	Ninth Eleventh Thirteenth Upper structure

Added / omitted	Sixth Minor sixth Augmented sixth Power chord Lydian chord Seven six chord

By function

Diatonic	Tonic Dominant Subdominant Supertonic Mediant Submediant Leading / Subtonic

Altered	Approach Borrowed Chromatic mediant Neapolitan chord Passing

Secondary	Secondary dominant Secondary leading-tone Secondary supertonic

With names

Other