Voice Leading Is the Art of Connecting Chord Tones in the Smoothest Manner Possible
Vocalisation Leading
Voice leading on guitar is the art of leading the private notes of a chord in an economical way. The term comes from chorale music, where composers would literally exist leading the voices of the choir through a progression.
Typically, "good voice leading" is idea to exist when the notes of a chord move through the progression with the least possible movement. Notwithstanding, the contrary tin accept a desirable issue as well!
"Vocalism leading? You never told me I had to sing!!"
Don't worry - the title is a scrap misleading! 😉
Sorry news: this is the final of the series of seven blog posts (and videos) on quick-and-easy jazz guitar tips. (Remember final fourth dimension? We talked near chord cycles ...)
Adept news: this is "the dessert", the sweet treat ... my all-fourth dimension favorite tip for jazz guitarists of all levels:
Acquire to use voice leading in your comping!
We could also take had this jazz guitar tip as "please don't spring around between chords shapes in your comping" ... but it's easier to simply say "use voice leading" for blogging purposes! ;-)
What is Voice Leading?
In summary, when using adept vocalism leading, the voices within chords create smooth lines, thus minimizing the amount of melodic movement.
On the guitar, this is (basically) finding the closest available next chord, instead of jumping from shape to shape (while comping.)
Meet the "Drop two Claiming" for an instance of perfect voice leading through a chord cycle:
Why?
The advantages of such an arroyo are fairly obvious. The #1 reason, is, of course that information technology'due south sounds expert and that legendary jazz guitarists just play like that.
And then, let'due south just convince ourselves: It is musically sound to employ proper voice leading. (Pun intended).
Some more than positive by-products of this arroyo:
- Avoiding comping by shapes
- Sounding more similar a pianist
- Understanding harmony and chord changes
- Knowing the ingredients of chords and scales
- Moving chord extensions around
- Improve Chord tune chops
- Developing "ears for chords"
- Harmonizing your solo lines
- Increased humility
- And bragging rights!
(I wonder how the last two fit together, though!)
2 Piece of cake Examples
Permit's just play on Dm7 - G7 ... a favorite these days! Here are the chord shapes. You should picket the video to really understand how we got there.
See how only 1 note moves to get from Dm7 to G9? This is cracking voice leading ... nosotros have a minimal amount of movement. Nevertheless, we hear exactly the chords irresolute from ane to some other.
Always wondered how Ed Bickert does it? Just like that, only like that ...
;-)
More than to practice ...
Of course, in that location's always more than you lot could exist doing. Ideally, you should be able to "vocalisation lead" in between all the chords in tunes you know. Go through your repertoire and apply vocalism leading as an do. Any two chords in a row can be analyzed like the Dm7 - G7 above...
At present, I said higher up that "you should" have the ability to apply perfect vocalisation leading all the time. Simply, it doesn't mean that you lot would always play like that while performing. It's not necessarily desirable all of the time ... just the big moving picture idea is that at least you can if (or when) you have to, in musical contexts.
Now for, some intermediary steps to get you started. When attempting to play proper voice leading in between two chords, hither's how you can go on:
- 1 ane string set, acquire all four inversions of the kickoff chord (say Dm7)
- Repeat with the second chord (say G7)
- For each inversion of Dm7, see what is the closest inversion of G7 you can "phonation pb" to ...
- Rinse and repeat.
- (So take fun with extensions!)
**Notes from the editor** This post was updated x/23/2020. (characteristic image updated and layout changes)
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Source: https://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/blog/jazz-guitar-tips-voice-leading
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