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Voice-leading - Er, what is it?

3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Metal7000 
#1 ·
I've heard this term quite a few times and I was hoping for a bit of clarification on the subject.  :read:

 Thanks for any :help:  
 
#4 ·
Voice-leading

It's the way in which the voices (or notes ) of a chord moves to the next chord. People usually strive for smooth voice leading, where there is as little movement as possible between chords.

Example:

G to C
(V to I)

The notes of each chord would be:
G B D G and C E G C

G is a common tone between the two chords.

G moves down a fifth to C
B moves up a half step to C
D moves up a whole step to E
G stays the same.

This is really simplified, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what the term refers to.
 
#7 ·
Voice-leading

Devine-

From my understanding that's not right. That would simply be called a secondary dominat, in this case V7/V, like you said. The movement of the chord tones of the D7 to the G would be voice leading.

Like this is just what I've learned through school, so other interpretations could be valid for all i know. I don't really see how a secondary dominant could be called voice leading though.
 
#8 ·
Voice-leading

Assignment of chords as secondary dominants is directly related to contrapuntal voice leading. All the notes in a D7 move down a fifth or up a fourth to a G7, just like all the notes in a G7 move down a fifth or up a fourth to a CM7. I've never had anyone make a distinction between the movement of the chord tones and the movement of the chord itself, as a chord is simply a collection of tones.

-Devin
 
#9 ·
Voice-leading

First of all, Secondary Dominants are totally unrelated to the original question of "What is a voice leading?"

If you've never heard of a distinction between chord tones and movement of a chord itself I don't know what to tell you. There is definately a distinction. Different voicings of the same collections of tones will sound differently. That is what voice leading is all about!
 
#10 ·
Voice-leading

Voice leading deals with the vertical (melodic) connections of horizontal (chordal) elements. it is the study of movement from one chord to another. the chord progression C-G7-C can be voiced quite a few different ways, each with different properties, some more desirable than others. general guidelines for "traditional" voice-leading exist, such as avoiding parallel fifths and octaves, etc etc. secondary dominance is a harmonic quality. while there are topics concerning voice-leading of a V/V-V-I progression, the actual function of secondary dominance is unrelated to voice leading. to clarify:

it DOES matter how you move each tone of a chord. each way of voice leading produces different effects. all of which should be understood. it's not acceptable to only know how to move all your voices up or all your voices down. nothing (ok...almost nothing) sucks more than hearing bands with nothing but root-position chords.

btw..this is also my first post here. so. hi everyone. seems like quite the informative forum......lots of musicians who know their stuff.

jon
 
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