Celebrated contemporary jazz guitarist Hristo Vitchev has a new book new book on quartal harmony concepts for jazz guitar.
Vitchev provided details about the new book, “Offset Quartal Voicings for Guitar”: The concept presented in this book is something that I have been fascinated with for a very long time. The sound of chord structures and sonorities build in fourths (instead of thirds as in conventional harmony) has been always attractive to my ear. It is a sound that has played an essential role in the harmonic signature of modal jazz and modern jazz in particular.
The voicings presented here are some of my favorite variations and re-arrangements of the classic quartal voicings that many call “So What” voicings as they were the primary chord structures of the legendary Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” where the tune “So What” was first recorded.“
“By moving the four different notes of the chord throughout the many possible octave displacements we still retain a structure that is built by four notes (a diatonic fourth apart form each other) but with their “offset” now we can produce a myriad of different textures and sounds that enrich and paint a whole new personality of the well know harmonic character.
I invite you to experiment with these shapes and try to adapt and mix with the already standard quartal voicings you use. Let your ear guide you!”