Chord inversions/voicing

[ansthenia]

Hey everyone, hope your all doing well.

 

I want to go more in depth with chord voicing. I know about inversions and I use them to make help chord changes more fluid and avoid too much parallel harmony, but that's all I use them for. Are there other reasons one would choose a certain chord voicing? Is the middle not that important and it's all about the top and bottom notes?

 

I would like to have a greater understanding and was wondering if anyone could help me with this subject? So far I have just been making it so each line moves as little as possible to the next note, without really understanding how the voicing can have an effect on the sound.

 

How do YOU decide which Chord inversion to use?

 

Thanks for your time

[Rev. Juda Sleaze]

Well, for me it just depends on what sounds right. I don't have any kind of method, just kind of bumble around by ear. Though I should point out that my chordal theory is not so great, I tend to think much more in melodic lines, so each note of a chord is more like its own voice to me.

 

But, it does depend on what instrument I'm writing for, as with guitar, inversions can be very useful in making chord changes playable.

 

One last thing - I wouldn't advise getting stuck in the habit of minimizing all movement as a rule; sometimes bigger leaps accross the keyboard/fretboard can work well too. You just have to use your judgement and ears to tell if one leads into another or sounds like too big of a jump.

 

Just MHO

[Beer Moth]

You might want to experiment with closed and open voicings too.

[JetLab]

Since I'm a guitar player I can only speak for this instrument. I like to minimize movement. I was taught that if you are moving more than 3 frets (generally speaking) in any chord progression you are wasting movement and thereby not playing very efficiently. Playing melodic passages I use the entire fretboard with my scale knowledge.

 

Keep in mind this is a general rule and I always let my ears do the walking in the end. Sometimes I may prefer to use a voicing that is further up or down the neck. Again, let your ears be the judge.

 

Aslo, as far as note selection there are some general rules for what notes you select for a voicing. For instance a 13th chord has 7 notes but we don't really play a 7 note chord on guitar, so which notes do we select? We should try to incorporate the important notes.

 

What are the important notes you may ask?

 

the 3rd and 7th degrees then the farthest extension and any altered tones.

 

Hope this sheds some light.

 

Cheers,

 

Ken

[lookatthisguy]

I think it should also be said that it depends on the context.

 

If you're writing classical contrapuntal harmony, for instance, there will be more rigidity/structure to the movement than if you're comping jazz changes in a combo.

[JetLab]

Excellent addition.