The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

(National Geographic (Little) Kids) #1

Chapter 15:Harmony and Counterpoint 193


When you’re writing harmony, there are three key voice-leading conventions to
keep in mind. When you follow these conventions, the creation of harmony
parts becomes somewhat easy:


◆In general, voices should move smoothly. That means moving each voice
the shortest distance possible, and retaining common tones between suc-
cessive chords in the same voice. How big of a leap is too much? Try to
avoid leaps larger than a fourth, except in the lowest (bass) voice, which
can accept larger leaps that move along with the chord progression.
◆When at all possible, you should avoid moving all the voices in the same
direction. If some of the voices move up over the course of a line, at least
one voice should move down.
◆Avoid moving voices in parallel “perfect” intervals—fourths, fifths, or
octaves. Voices can move in parallel thirds and sixths.

Here’s an example of bad voice leading. Notice how the two parts move in par-
allel, and how each voice has huge leaps from note to note?


... corrected.


The second example shows how to fix the voice leading problems, merely by
swapping a few notes from voice to voice or by picking other notes within the
chord. It isn’t that hard when you realize that any note can be assigned to any
voice; all you have to do is pick the right notes to create the best-sounding
musical lines.


Bad voice leading ...

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