How to voice lead a chord progression
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
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Voice leading is when we arrange the notes of each chord in the progression to minimise the amount of movement each voice has to make, resulting in a progression that is not only easier to perform but sounds smoother and more cohesive.
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0:00 What is Voice Leading?
2:27 Clocks by Coldplay
6:00 don't voice lead the bass
7:02 Pianote
8:01 Back to Black by Amy Winehouse
11:04 piano vs. guitar chord progressions
11:59 12 bar blues voice leading
![How To Arrange Chords into BEAUTIFUL 4-PART HARMONIES [Music Theory - Voice Leading]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UkatcvIuF4U/mqdefault.jpg)
![How To Arrange Chords into BEAUTIFUL 4-PART HARMONIES [Music Theory - Voice Leading]](/img/tr.png)
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There's a bot replying to some comments and trying to convince us it's you.
Anyway, I have another song for your list of "songs based on classical music." I think Omega's Theme (from "The Bad Batch") is loosely based on THAXTED. (Holst's theme for "Jupiter")
I've played guitar for 13 years and have recently gotten into learning piano by taking theory and guitar voicings and transposing them, your videos really help with me understanding the piano 'language', thanks David! 🙂
Oh hey, me too
Me too . Love the explanation
I don't even play piano, yet follow this kids' videos simply because he is unmatched at explaining music theory. Such a talent.
Same here. I’ve gone from just playing my guitar to helping everyone workout parts, dynamics, transposing, arranging and more. It’s been a ton of fun. I’m not the lead singer but he’s starting relying on me to help his ideas come out musically. It’s a major step in my own progress.
Ok this helped me understand the video context more, because as a piano player I was like “yeah this is how playing chords works” guess you don’t know what’s unique about your instrument until you learn about other ones haha
finally i fucking understood this concept. i don't study music seriously but when people talked in videos about this i didn't get it but the explanation at the start was so clear.
Great!!
Brilliant stuff David. I never really considered WHY voice leading is so important even on an instrument that isn't, you know, the human voice. As so often with your videos, it's a concept I was vaguely aware of, but no-one has explained it so clearly to me before!
I've tortured myself trying to teach this to non-classically trained musicians. Once it clicks, it's amazing for them.
Voice leading now makes a lot more sense to me. Guitar is my primary instrument, so when I learned about voice leading in a music theory course I took last year, I struggled at first. This is very helpful and solidifies my commitment to learn at least some basic, entry-level piano so I can get a better sense of these concepts. When I'm back on guitar, they are much more applicable now.
Voive leading on guitar is more difficult than on Piano because you typically start - as David explains pretty well - with open chords and learning the various shapes for all the chords which is overwhelming in the beginning. Voice leading cannot be done with open chords and isn't that well visible on the guitar like on the piano.
Yep. As a pretty basic guitar player I’ve the inability to voice lead frustrating. Literally just started using organ to get voice leading which makes it easier to write Melodie’s as well.
It's fairly easy on guitar, take G to D, stick your thumb over the top to grab the F# on the low E, when playing the D (D/F#), they're all there, even if you don't go past the 3rd fret
Voice leading on guitar has always been easy for me... then again, I'm a pretty shit guitarist, always trying to find the easiest way to do something. Inversions are great, the fewer fingers I have to move is great... and hey, when you pedal on that one note, that's the voice leading of the progression.
In open chords, think of Am-C-G. You've 2 notes in common between Am and C, then again between C & G. You only have to move one finger to go from A to C, then another from C to G.
With inversions, it's easier than that. We often play those full 6 string open chords... but really, it's just the triad. You don't need those extra fingers. So if you play:
x122xx that's an Am (E-A-C). Literally just lift up one finger:
x102xx is a C (A-G-C). Now take your left hand completely off the fretboard and play those 3 strings again:
x000xx is an inverted G triad (D-G-B).
The thing that makes it tricky is we were taught as kids that "chords" were played on 4, 5, or even all 6 strings. If we get out of that mindset and focus on the triads, guitar is kinda made for simple voice leading.
These videos make understanding and learning SO much easier. I hated music theory when I was younger, but if this is how I was taught I would probably succeeded way better and never lost my interest.
I can’t really play keyboard but I’ve found this principle is also very useful for writing synth parts in the piano roll of a DAW. Thanks, David!
Your videos are great at making sense of the more complicated aspects of chord progressions. I don't play piano, but still this helps me tremendously with guitar and composition. Thank you!
Love the keyboard visualization at the bottom. Great content as always. Thank you!
Thanks 😊
I however don’t like the visualization. Not sure why, maybe it’s that keyboard is flipped from the one you’re playing at the bottom of your frame, thus creating a somewhat disjointed image.
My favorite part is where David shows-off at the end of the video. :) Seriously, keep it up!
It’s crazy how much better Clocks sounds with voice leading!! Great example. Thank you!
It's all becoming clearer and clearer. I can see in practice all the theory my piano teacher told me.
Thank You David!
Looking further of your videos!
Good explanation of the advantages of smooth voice leading - less movement for your fingers and a smoother sound. There are disadvantages as well. The main one being you have to learn different chord shapes to do the inversions. With root position triads, you learn 12 different chords with essentially one shape. With the inversions, there are 36 with 3 shapes. I've found this can be tricky for beginners to learn, but it is certainly well worth doing.
You have officially made me a better composer! I had no idea
🎉🎉🎉🎉
This is the best way I've ever seen this concept broken down. You explain HOW and WHY voice leading works when UA-cam is oversaturated with WHAT to do. I've been a musician for 30 years... I am great at many aspects of composing and playing.. I can write great melodies..I pick out tasty chords.. and my I'm confident in how I arrange the structure of my songs... but I'll admit it... I've often fallen into the trap of picking out chords that work together, fit in key and sound great by themselves... only to feel like when I listen to the progression, it's like I'm chewing on food trying to make up my mind if I like it or not, and then at the end I say "it's ok" ... during this video it hit me that the voicing part is what I've been missing this whole time. In hindsight when I've been satisfied with a progression after playing around with the notes, it's because I used my ear to fumble into voicing it properly. I would be ashamed...if I weren't so excited to go revisit some tracks I've abandoned and also write some new ones! Thank you.
Loved the playing at the end. A nice treat after learning something useful!
Voice leading is the most useful tool that is spoken about the least it seems. It can actually be especially handy for guitarists. I use it all the time when writing, letting the bassist carry the weight of the chord. I can use dyads and stay on the same 2 notes but the bass changes notes and the chord changes.
This connects a lot of dots for me. Thank you, as always!
Excellent!
Dude you choosed the best time to come out with these videos. I just bought a MIDI and started to teach myself to play on piano in december. After playing guitar for 13 years, it was kind of an easy start, and realized a lot of things by just thinking on it, but I always got some new info or idea from your videos as a beginner. Thank you David!
Great to hear 😃😃
I love that you explain things in terms of the performance itself, particularly with the example of people singing the individual notes of a chord. Too often, music theory just explains what's going on without explaining how it's going on. When you dig deeper, you realize that what sounds good is often what's more logical or "easy" for the musicians to perform. Great stuff and look forward to more videos!
After playing guitar for fourty years I now started also with the piano. It's interesting that playing chords is so much easier, playing scales is easier, voice leading is also so much easier, playing one note melodies over many octaves is easier. What is way more difficult for me is isolating the play between the left and the right hand.
It's ok if you're struggling to learn it, it's important to just have patience, which can make a huge difference between being the beginner that you are now to being more advanced in the future.
You can always slow down and play as fast as possible to make no mistakes. Then practice in this tempo for some time. After a while you will adapt, then its time to try a little bit faster and repeat same proccess.
The trick is called muscle memory and it takes time to train it.
You can also try to execrice yourself to use left hand instead of right hand during normal life chores (or vice versa if you are lefthanded). It disables "autopilot" in your head adn again, you train your muscle memory (on said left hand).
This is a fantastic video! These voice-led inversions are almost magical in their power to produce the most pleasing progressions, and vice-versa. Removing them from Coldplay's "Clocks" actually destroyed the song. Amazing stuff you teach us!
I just love your videos. Very well laid out and to the point which makes it so easy to understand. Thank you!
I've known about voice leading for months, but this was one of the best demonstrations of what it really means. Thanks to the Beatles.
BTW for any musicians suffering from pains from playing, I have my video out now.
Oh My Aching Bach.
I'm a beginning guitarist & I find your videos to be invaluable.
This is how I would have wanted my music theory been teached to me. I have never played anything but drums, and last time was almost 10 years ago, but your videos make me want to learn to play piano or guitar. Keep up the good work!
Very interesting video. Not only does voice leading result in a smoother progression that sounds better, but a more efficient one, as well. A big advantage for piano players! Thanks. David!
Your little pieces at the end are always such a treat! :)
Hell yeah i was kinda struggling to un derstand what exactly voice leading is 😁 thank you so much david
I really love the visual format, really clean and intuitive
Just commenting to say I love your videos. Always so informative while simultaneously being really captivating and engaging. You do such a great job, I’m so happy I found this channel :)
My first instrument is guitar, and I’ve always been kind of impressed with how the guitar is set up in such a way that the chords have kind of a built-in voice leading.
Take a I V progression in G. If you play the G 320033 and the D like xx0232 like I do, then the high D stays the same, the high G is only a half step away from the F#, and the A falls a full step nicely to the G. Then in the bass voice, there is a solid and dramatic relationship of a fifth between the G and the D.
If you’re playing with a bassist, then you can voice the D as 200232 or even x00232 and have the inverted chords.
Same with V I in A: 022100 to x02220; or I V in F: 133211 to x32010.
A lot of the voice leading is just built in.
Jumping around is something that tends to happen in more angular and visceral genres like punk or metal (especially with power chords).
as a funk player, you can get some really good voicings with little-to-no-effort a bit further up the guitar and by sticking to 3 strings (adding the others in for inflection).
Take D barred with one finger: xx777x.
Add a finger and it's Bm: xx977x.
Add another finger and it's G: xx978x.
Add another finger and it's Em: xx998x.
slide down 2 frets and you have C, Am, F, Dm. In fact, it works anywhere on the guitar, plus your fingers are able to do whatever you want for embellishments and runs as your fingers are already in position for a scale.
Your explanation is EVERYTHING! Thank you
Fantastic lesson, as usual. Thanks, David!
Amazingly simple explanation! So intuitive!
a pleasure learning from you sir
great explanaition - thank you so much. Love your work David.
Very cool David! Thank you!!
This is how I've played piano for decades! Who knew it had a name!
You’re the best guitar teacher. Even though you play piano.
You’re great, thanks 👍
😃😃😃😃
Another brilliant video!
Funny thing is, I often do this when I'm noodling around on the piano, but it never occurred to me WHAT I was actually doing.
Thanks for adding more knowledge about what I do 👍
NOW I get! Thanks so much Dave ❤❤❤
Great 😊
I LOVE this channel!
Worth watching till the end. Such a fun improve.
And the penny dropped! Thanks for sharing David 😊
wow, I am also learning guitar and planning to make some song in my DAW and your explanation about voice leading and inversions make so much sense now. Always thought why invert notes when you already have a chord progression. + it helps in producing EDM music with dynamic range where you have lots of instruments. This video is worth a golden bar! Thank you!
Very usefull information, thanks bro!
this video helped a lot, you're good at explaining)
Very Well explained !!!👍
Thank you for this video. Explanation is better than other similar videos of this topic.
Now, this was really inspiring!
Great!
That little jam you do at the end of this video is incredible. Loved it. :)❤ 12:52
This is amazing, I feel like I just learned A LOT!
Brilliant! Thank you
Thanks!
Thank you so much for this :)
another great video! even though i know most of this stuff already, your videos are really pleasing to watch. keep it up 👍
😃😃😃😃
You are genius David. Thank you for your videos, they are just what i need. I am starting to write my own music after played last 16 years mostly by ears and feel covering songs or just jamming. I started to re-learn all theory from the bottom. Now I uderstand some more theory to compose my stuff. :)
I recently learned how to voicelead on guitar, and let me tell you, I enjoy playing 10x more.. the possibilities! for me learning the triads on guitar got me on the trail to start to see the connections between them. can recommend triads!
Thank you very much for articulating and explaining what I've been trying to do!
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Man, I did musical theatre in college, based out of the music department because we didn't quite have a theatre department and I had to do all sorts of voice leading for tests in harmony (theory) classes. Oh, how I wish this video was around to explain it so clearly and so intuitively! Since theory classes were separate from ear-training classes sometimes I would understand the patterns in theory but i would have no idea what I was writing would sound like. Watching your videos 10 years after completing that degree is so refreshing!
I suspect that a voice led tune played on violin (yes, yes, we rarely ever do anything close to chords, whatever) would sound fascinating, and is probably done a lot more than I've noticed. It's something I'm going to look out for, and try to write myself, too
The Bach cello suites have some voice leading within arpeggios.
That's such a great thing you just taught.
Some of my favorite chords do that.
Great lesson David. This is really useful information to me. Having been self-taught on the keyboard, I have done this for years and didn't know that it had a name. I noticed as I was learning chords that they could be played in different positions and this realization helped me pick out the chord progression on Pink Floyd's song Thin Ice. It is nice to learn the technical name and the whole concept and reason behind it.
I started on Drumeo and am thrilled to have access to Pianote, Guitareo, and Singeo as well. A valuable treasure trove of musical instruction for anybody who loves to make music. If you too have music that bubbles up in your soul, then I highly recommend Pianote as it is a most beneficial instructional tool.
Thank you so much. Unbelievably useful! 😊🙌🏼
❤
Fantastic video again David!! As an amateur keyboard player i'm learning all the time!!
You’re such a good teacher. Keep it up
Thank you 😊
I do something similar on guitar. One song had a transition from Dm (xx0231) to G (320003) which I found hard, but instead I just used a different G (355433) because it lets me stick to that 3 on the B string. Makes it easier to do
you could also play G as (320033)
Thank you! I could never understand the why and details of voice leading
The video I needed! Thank you Sir David!
😃😃😃
Maybe a video like this in the future about vocal harmony?
I would definitely say this am f c g is best chord progression ever made in whole music history.
Thanks!
wow, i’ve never fully understood voice leading until this video. excellent explanation!
Thanks 😊
Amazing information, thank you alot
Another great theory lesson (which pitches nicely between the expert and those with some reasonable understanding of things)
Amazing video! I’d love to see a part two analyzing voice leading in The Strokes’ music. Frontman Julian Casablancas studied vocal voice leading in college and applied the concepts to pretty much every guitar riff of their first two albums. It’s amazing stuff, I’d love to see you break it down!
I assume you are coming here after watching Matty Greg's videos. If not, I would definitely suggest you go watch them.
my teacher showed me how to do this 2 months ago and it blew my mind. completely changed how I think about music, and now I just do it by reflex and it's tons of fun
Thank you very much, my Music Theory will improve when I hopefully have the chance to try this...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Always a good day when David Bennett posts a new video!
Thanks! 😊😊😊
You're sounded amazing to us. I've been playing drum so far instead of being played Piano when I was little. When I've got much more spending with these 'Piano' signs, I truly transform myself being to my second Instrument. That's miracle for me as when as I was little that couldn't play it. Such a pity too 😄
You should do a video going through the types of articulation and performance techniques for different orchestral instrument using your teaching style, maybe going through a family of instruments at a time in a video (e.g. strings/woodwind/percussion).
All the definitions say voice leading "involves choosing notes and chords that are harmonically and melodically consistent, and that creates a sense of flow and continuity within a piece of music." And that's a pretty good definition. I forgive myself for not getting it until now. Thanks, David.
Thanks a lot!
what you speak about at the beginning is exactly how i was taught keyboard. now i’m in piano lessons trying to unlearn the habit of those chords! 😂
I learned a lot.
Fabulous.
Outstanding stuff! Can get some really beautiful harmonies this way. Might be worth doing a follow-up video with some examples of 3-part harmonies that have voice-leading in actual voices, just Because.
That’s a good idea! I’ll keep it in mind!
Sweet play-out.
Great video
Thx my man
Thanks!
This is why when I learned pop piano I decided to practice every chord and its inversions and master them before moving on to a new chord. After a few months of this. I naturally play smoother because I practiced inversions as if they were their own chords.
So it’s called voice leading - I didn’t know it had a name. But it really worked when I figured out how to play Space Oddity. I found the chords but no fingering. Like you said, just playing root forms sounded bad and felt awkward. “No way he would’ve composed it that way,” I thought, so I tried to think of the chords like a songwriter would. Success!
But I didn’t figure out the need to play the root in my left…
Thanks for another great video.😊
Sliding credits while he plays is a good idea
😃😃
I like the new way he’s presenting the chords on screen!! The classical was cool but hard to understand tbh
I'd been doin this since ages but didn't know this was actually voice leading
The intro examples is exactly what I do for the Axis Progression to make it fun as a warmup. Couple of inversions and it's much easier to play and just improv silly stuff on top.
Great video, I understand, but ALSO Clocks in a standard progression actually still sounds pretty interesting! :D
Now that you mention the non-voice led songs, can you do a video on that? particularly with piano songs as well?
That Bb to A transition in Back to Black as you described sounded so French
Good video David. Looking at the comments we can see that guitar players are having ah ha moments because of this video. Everyone needs to learn a little keyboard/piano. It really helps with understanding music theory.
Great video as always; thanks for explaining! Could you perhaps follow this up by highlighting some of the ways you can play these chords to bring interest to accompaniment, like you did in the 12 bar blues example? What notes of the chord would you play when to avoid playing block chords or straight arpeggios?