Voicings and voice leading
How to spread a chord's notes across the fretboard, and how to connect chords by moving each voice as little as possible.
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Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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How to spread a chord's notes across the fretboard, and how to connect chords by moving each voice as little as possible.
Advanced
A voicing is a specific way of arranging a chord's notes: which ones you play, in which octave and in what order. Voice leading is the craft of connecting voicings so that each note (each "voice") moves as little as possible to the next. Done well, a progression sounds like several melodies moving together, not blocks jumping around.
A ii–V–I in C major with three-note voicings (root, third and seventh). Listen to the three chords in a row:
The upper voices barely move. Hear them on their own:
| Chord | Bass | Middle voice | Top voice | Frets (6th to 3rd) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dm7 | D (1) | F (b3) | C (b7) | x 5 3 5 |
| G7 | G (1) | F (b7) | B (3) | 3 x 3 4 |
| Cmaj7 | C (1) | E (3) | B (7) | x 3 2 4 |
Each chord's seventh falls a half step to the next chord's third, and the third holds over as the next seventh. These notes are the guide tones.
String 6, Open: E2 · 3 · Third
Load the progression into the builder; its comping mode connects the chords with the least movement:
ii–V–I in C majorThen try it yourself: play the three voicings from the table, then the same progression with root-position barre chords. Compare how much your hand moves.
Useful voicing types on guitar:
Voice-leading principles:
Play only the third and seventh of each chord on strings 4 and 3 through a progression. Then improvise a line that lands on those notes at every chord change: your solo will outline the harmony even with no accompaniment.
Ear & improvisationTarget tonesImprovise over a backing track aiming at a specific tone of each chord.The chorale tradition set out by Aldwell and Schachter asks you to avoid parallel fifths and octaves, resolve the leading tone up to the tonic and the seventh down, and favour contrary motion between bass and top voice. These rules aim at independent voices.
On electric guitar, parallel power chords are deliberate parallel fifths: a stylistic trait, not a mistake. What matters is knowing when you want independent voices (jazz comping, solo arrangements) and when you want parallel blocks (riffs, funk). Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry organises voicings by string set precisely to make these connections easier.