4-Part Voice Leading Rules and Practices

4-Part voice leading rules and practices  Consider the four chord voices as individual voices: SATB soparano, alto, tenor, bass, each moving horizontally through the piece, and when sounding together, form the chords. Close voicing: 1) roots roots in the bass bass clef (unless inversion inversion is indicated indicated by slash chord ie. D-7/F) 2) top 2 or 3 voices voices go in the treble treble clef (3 and 5 for triads; 3, 5, and 7 for seventh seventh chords) 3) spacing for the the top 3 voices cannot exceed exceed 1 octave from from lowest to top voice 4) no jumps, chord to chord, of more than M3 for any of the top voices. 5) Bass may move completely independantly, with no limits on chord to chord movement or distance from upper voices. 6) avoid doubling chord tones in 7th chords C

E m7

D -7/F

G7

C maj7

S A T

B

Open voicings: 1) roots in the the bass bass clef (unless inversion is indicated indicated by slash slash chord chord ie. Cmaj7/E) 2) top 2 voices go in treble clef  3) tenor tenor may reside reside in either treble or bass clef, but generally generally no lower than E in middle of bass clef  4) distance between adjacent top 3 voices (SAT) (SAT) must be less than 1 octave 5) no jumps, chord to chord, of more than M3 for any of the top voices. 6) Bass may move completely independantly, with no limits on chord to chord movement or distance from upper voices. 7) avoid doubling chord tones in 7th chords F maj7

C 7/E

A m7

B maj7

G m7

3

S A T B

Diatonic voice leading in H2 supplement: pp. 44,46, top of 50 Diatonic with secondary secondary dominant H2 supplement pp 61, 70, 71, 72 with subdominant minor: pg. 75

C7

F maj7