Voice leading

Voice leading is the practice of connecting notes or chords by shaping the movement of individual musical lines. It balances melodic continuity, harmonic clarity, and the independence of voices.

Chord inversion: A chord inversion places a chord tone other than the root in the bass. Changing the bass note can reduce leaps between successive harmonies.
Musical voice: A musical voice is an independently perceived melodic line within a larger musical texture. Voice leading tracks these lines as harmony changes.
Species counterpoint: Species counterpoint is a method of teaching counterpoint through progressively complex note-against-note exercises. Its strict interval rules offer a disciplined alternative to chord-centered voice leading.
Four-part harmony: Four-part harmony organizes music into soprano, alto, tenor, and bass parts. Its standard exercises make voice-leading constraints explicit.
Bach chorale: A Bach chorale is a four-part harmonization of a Lutheran hymn by Johann Sebastian Bach. These chorales are standard examples of tonal voice leading in four parts.
Common tone: A common tone is a pitch shared by two or more chords. Holding shared pitches links chords while other voices move.
Interval (music): A musical interval is the distance in pitch between two notes. Intervals describe the size and quality of each voice's movement.
Partimento: Partimento is an eighteenth-century teaching practice based on realizing bass lines at the keyboard. It trains harmonic realization through bass patterns rather than fixed voice-leading prescriptions.
Jazz voicing: Jazz voicing is the arrangement of chord tones and extensions for jazz instruments or ensembles. Jazz players use compact, economical motion to connect extended harmonies.
Rule of the octave: The rule of the octave is a harmonization pattern for ascending and descending bass scales. It demonstrates how conventional bass motion guides upper-voice progressions.

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