spaivxx
10-18-2005, 03:03 AM
Proper voice leading, or lack there of, can make or break a harmonic progression. There is no room in this thread for me to even begin to get comprehensive here, believe me, I have tried to post many threads on theory and such and experienced the frustraton of losing the page when I hit submit!!! Seriously, this topic alone could fill books.
So what is voice leading? Simply it is allowing the melodic tendencies inherent to the elements of chords to follow their proper or natural course. Yes, there is a right way to move from one chord to another.
First of all, power chords are not chords but reinforced melodic elements, so none of this applies to your root-fifth-octave rock/metal "power chords". When you move your power chords around in a song you are NOT playing chord progressions!!!
In simple harmony, typical chords consist of a root, third, fifth and possibly some upper extensons such as sevenths, ninths, etc.....
For instance, if you are playing an A minor chord, you may start with the tonic note, A, then perhaps the fifth, E, and the minor 3rd, C. so your chord will look like this AEC. So you want to go somewhere with this, let's say to D minor. The first step is to find common tones. The tonic of a minor, A, is the fifth of D minor. So you can consider not moving that tone. The 3rd of A minor, the C, is the minor 7th of D minor, so really you could keep it in place too. The fifth of A minor, E is the ninth of D minor, but we are not going to see it as such in this example, it must move. However, the E does move smoothly to F, the minor third in the Dminor chord. Half step movement is always fluid sounding, so it works. So AEC to AFC suggests a vi to ii m7 movement in the key of C.
Assuming you have a bassline working beneth you, this is OK voice leading. But without the bass, building a chord with the fifth in the bass is not preferrable in most instances, as it is unstable.But unstable isnt always bad.
The iim7 chord is a natural step towards a V7, in this case G7. So we began with vi(Am) moved to iim7(Dm7) and are going to V7(G7). AEC to AFC to what? How about GFB. This is of course the G7 minus the fifth. It is OK to leave out the fifth in most chords because the 3rd and 7th are the two most important tones for identifying it's function. You could even leave the A in place and call the chord a G9 even without the G present, the 3rd, 7th and 9th in this context will tell the listener a dominant harmony is moving through this art of the phrase!!! Finally, resolve to the tonic, in this case, C major. AEC to AFC to GFB to CEC, or if you like AEC again, in this case instead of calling it A minor it's function requires us to rename it C6 (a common embellishment of a major chord).
So, here are the basic principles. 1)smooth movement and retention of common tones. 2)contrary motion between parts whenever possible. 3)Avoid parallel octaves and fifths!!! There is a time for them, like in power "chords" (again not really chords at all), but in harmonic movement, these destroy the independence of the lines which make up the chords. Remember, a chord progression is just the simultaneous movement of melodic lines, each line in the progression should sound logical by itself!!!
Finally, these principles are the primer, an introduction to the art and science of constructing progressions, there are so many ways to manipulate tones logically that almost any two chords may be used together and these pinciples applied to define thier functions. I mentioned in my previous article that these articles are more or less teasers, I am working up a website which will contain detailed, thorough information on all aspects of conventional music theory, and then branch out beyond. When the site goes live, I will post links.
So what is voice leading? Simply it is allowing the melodic tendencies inherent to the elements of chords to follow their proper or natural course. Yes, there is a right way to move from one chord to another.
First of all, power chords are not chords but reinforced melodic elements, so none of this applies to your root-fifth-octave rock/metal "power chords". When you move your power chords around in a song you are NOT playing chord progressions!!!
In simple harmony, typical chords consist of a root, third, fifth and possibly some upper extensons such as sevenths, ninths, etc.....
For instance, if you are playing an A minor chord, you may start with the tonic note, A, then perhaps the fifth, E, and the minor 3rd, C. so your chord will look like this AEC. So you want to go somewhere with this, let's say to D minor. The first step is to find common tones. The tonic of a minor, A, is the fifth of D minor. So you can consider not moving that tone. The 3rd of A minor, the C, is the minor 7th of D minor, so really you could keep it in place too. The fifth of A minor, E is the ninth of D minor, but we are not going to see it as such in this example, it must move. However, the E does move smoothly to F, the minor third in the Dminor chord. Half step movement is always fluid sounding, so it works. So AEC to AFC suggests a vi to ii m7 movement in the key of C.
Assuming you have a bassline working beneth you, this is OK voice leading. But without the bass, building a chord with the fifth in the bass is not preferrable in most instances, as it is unstable.But unstable isnt always bad.
The iim7 chord is a natural step towards a V7, in this case G7. So we began with vi(Am) moved to iim7(Dm7) and are going to V7(G7). AEC to AFC to what? How about GFB. This is of course the G7 minus the fifth. It is OK to leave out the fifth in most chords because the 3rd and 7th are the two most important tones for identifying it's function. You could even leave the A in place and call the chord a G9 even without the G present, the 3rd, 7th and 9th in this context will tell the listener a dominant harmony is moving through this art of the phrase!!! Finally, resolve to the tonic, in this case, C major. AEC to AFC to GFB to CEC, or if you like AEC again, in this case instead of calling it A minor it's function requires us to rename it C6 (a common embellishment of a major chord).
So, here are the basic principles. 1)smooth movement and retention of common tones. 2)contrary motion between parts whenever possible. 3)Avoid parallel octaves and fifths!!! There is a time for them, like in power "chords" (again not really chords at all), but in harmonic movement, these destroy the independence of the lines which make up the chords. Remember, a chord progression is just the simultaneous movement of melodic lines, each line in the progression should sound logical by itself!!!
Finally, these principles are the primer, an introduction to the art and science of constructing progressions, there are so many ways to manipulate tones logically that almost any two chords may be used together and these pinciples applied to define thier functions. I mentioned in my previous article that these articles are more or less teasers, I am working up a website which will contain detailed, thorough information on all aspects of conventional music theory, and then branch out beyond. When the site goes live, I will post links.