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When playing a chord on a piano, how should the volumes of each degree of the chord be balanced. I am thinking that since the perfect fifth is often omitted, maybe it should be played softer if it was written. Continuing this line of thought, I think that maybe other degrees of the chord have certain preferences for balancing, but how would a pianist balance, let's say, the b7 and the #11 in a 7#11 chord? Should the b7 be louder or should the #11 be louder. Are there any guidelines to this matter? Any referencing material provided would be appreciated.

krismath
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    In my experience, balancing chords is better done with voicings, e.g. by moving the middle voice to a higher or lower octave, making the voicing sound more open. Or for example spread the voices of a 13th chord from bottom to top in this order: 7th - 3rd - 13th - 9th - 5th - 1st, leaving the 11th out. For a C13 this would be: Bb - E - A - D - G - C. It's possible to play individual notes with different dynamics, but it's quite hard to do consistently, and sparse voicings or "drop voicings" sound better anyway. Or just leave out some notes. Bb - E - A is a well-working, open-sounding C13. – piiperi Reinstate Monica Jul 08 '19 at 19:55
  • Surely listening to different balances of voicings will give some clues. There is no absolute 'well, the 3rd should be at 45% volume'. Come on. – Tim Jul 08 '19 at 20:35
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    The volume of individual voices is actually something I've thought about, especially because with MIDI tools it's possible to see the velocity of each note separately. But in the end, I've come to the conclusion that it's best to try and play chords in a clean, uniform and consistent way, timing-wise and dynamically. Think about accents and crescendo/diminuendo hairpins - even when you're playing chords that have many notes, if you think your chord is in a way a single instrument, not five or ten separate instruments, it will sound more focused and clear. Focus on voicings instead. :) – piiperi Reinstate Monica Jul 08 '19 at 21:09
  • I would certainly avoid balancing based on chord degrees. Since voice leading will often take you from the 7th of one chord to the 3rd of the next, you'll end up with a different balance as you move from chord to chord, which won't sound too pleasant. In general, jazz pianists tend to play most of the voices at a relatively equal volume. – Max Jul 10 '19 at 02:51

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