Ablock chord is achord orvoicing built directly below themelody either on the strong beats or to create a four-partharmonized melody line in "locked-hands" rhythmic unison with the melody, as opposed tobroken chords. This latter style, known asshearing voicing, was popularized byGeorge Shearing, but originated withPhil Moore, among others.^[1]

Block chord style (also known aschorale style) uses simple chordalharmony in which "the notes of each chord may be played all at once" as opposed to being "played one at a time (broken orarpeggiated chords). For example, a guitarist can strum the chord (this would be a "block" chord) or use a picking style to play "broken" chords".^[2]

• Schmidt-Jones, Catherine. "Simple Chordal Harmony". openstax.cnx (accessed 7 November 2016).
• Sudhalter, Richard M. (2001).Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915–1945. Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-514838-1. Retrieved12 October 2025.

• Carl Humphries; Robin Meloy Goldsby (2002).The Piano Handbook. San Francisco: Backbeat Books.ISBN 978-0-87930-727-1.

Thismusic theory article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information.

• v
• t
• e

• Chords
• Jazz techniques
• Voicing (music)
• Jazz terminology
• Music theory stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All stub articles