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So What Chord

Quartal Harmony

Up to this point, we have discussed building chords up in intervals of 3rds (tertian harmony). But it is also possible to build chords up in intervals of 4ths. This is called Quartal Harmony. The So What Chord is a specific type of Quartal Chord (we will discuss Quartal Chords in more detail in an upcoming lesson). The So What Chord Voicing is a classic and widely used Modern Jazz piano voicing. This chord voicing derives its name from the song So What from Mile Davis’ Kind of Blue album. In this song the pianist, Bill Evans, plays a particular chord voicing which has become known as the So What Chord.

Quartal chord voicings:

Chords built in 4ths are analysed in the same way as regular chords built in 3rds. We look at all the notes that comprise them and figure out an appropriate chord name. This is arguably unsuitable, because chords built in 4ths sound and function very differently to chords built in 3rds. But unfortunately, standard music theory is what everyone knows and uses.

So What Chord

The So What Chord is a two handed chord voicing made up of 5 notes. It is built out of three stacked Perfect 4ths with a Major 3rd on top. So, for example, the D So What Chord is:

Chord Ambiguity

Because of the way the So What Chord is constructed (out of 4ths rather than 3rds), it is rather ambiguous and can be numerous chords at once, depending on the context. Some of these chords are listed below.

So What ChordPossible ChordsNotes
D So What Chord
D-G C-F-A
Dm11D F A C E G
B♭Maj13B♭ D F A C ( ) G
E♭Maj13#11E♭ G B♭ D F A C
F69F A C D G
G9susG C D F A

Because these chords are built in 4ths, they have a slightly Suspended Chord sound. This also means that they do not have the same need to resolve to another chord (like a G7 feels like it needs to resolve to CMaj7).

Chord Progressions

The So What Chord Voicing can be used in a standard ‘tonal’ chord progression (going around a Circle Progression or II-V-I) or a ‘modal’ chord progression (moving in steps). We will learn much more about tonal and modal harmony in future lessons.

Tonal Chord Progression

You can use the So What Chord in a II-V-I chord progression, as shown below.

II-V-I in C
Basic Chord ProgressionDm7G7CMaj7
Variation #1Dm11G9susCMaj13
D So What VoicingD So What VoicingE So What Voicing
D-G C-F-AD-G C-F-AE-A D-G-B
Variation #2Dm11G9CMaj13#11
D So What VoicingOpenB So What Voicing
D-G C-F-AD-G B-F-AB-E A-D-F#

Modal Chord Progression

Because the So What Chord Voicing is ambiguous and doesn’t need to resolve, you can move it around the piano however you like. Any chord can move to any other chord. You can create some really smooth and nice sounding progressions by moving the So What Chord up and down in steps (as is often done in Modal Jazz) or in small jumps. This can be done in two ways:

Root NoteParallel (True So What)Diatonic (in key of C Major)Possible Chords (for Diatonic)
CC-F B♭-E♭-GC-F B-E-GGsus
DD-G C-F-AD-G C-F-ADm11
B♭Maj13
E♭Maj13#11
F69
G9sus
EE-A D-G-BE-A D-G-BEm11
CMaj13
FMaj13#11
G69
A9sus
FF-B♭ E♭-A♭-CF-B E-A-CG7sus
FMaj7#11
GG-C F-B♭-DG-C F-B-DG7sus
FMaj#11
AA-D G-C-EA-D G-C-EAm11
FMaj13
B♭Maj13#11
C69
D9sus
BB-E A-D-F#B-E A-D-FG13
Bø7
Dm69
FMaj7#11

So What Inversions

Like any chord, So What Chords also have inversions. All of these inversions can be used if you need a different bass note or melody note on top. Notice that the 4th inversion of a So What chord is a standard Quartal Chord (which, again, we will discuss in an upcoming lesson).

So What Chord Inversions
Root PositionD-G C-F-A
1st InversionG-C F-A-D
2nd InversionC-F A-D-G
3rd InversionF-A D-G-C
4th Inversion
(Quartal Voicing)
A-D G-C-F

So What Alterations

You can also alter the interval between your left hand and right hand to create a new chord and a more dissonant sound. Below are a few examples of this.

So What ChordNotesPossible Chord
Classic So WhatD-G C-F-ADm11
LH + 2 semitonesE-A C-F-ADm9 or FMaj7
LH + 3 semitonesF-B♭ C-F-AB♭Maj9
LH + 4 semitonesF#-B C-F-A?

Jazz Piano History

Quartal harmony was first used extensively by McCoy Tyner in the 1960’s. And because Quartal chords are a bit ambiguous, they are more conducive to Modal harmony (again, we will discuss Modal Jazz in a future lesson). Today, playing chords built in 3rds is considered a bit old-fashioned and simplistic. Instead, Modern Jazz Pianists prefer to play chord built in 4ths.

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