4 part voice leading. Relevant to electronic music?

[Touch The Universe]

Hey. I'm finally taking a music theory class again (theory I) and have come across this subject. I'm not sure I understand it all correctly so could use some clarification on it if possible, but also would like to know if it is relevant to producing types of electronic music. You are using 4 voices, or notes stacked to create pieces of music within 4 clef areas. At first this makes sense if it was in different octaves, but why do some of the clefs share the same octave, alto-tenor etc. They are only seperated by a few notes? Why so confusing then? Anyways there are rules of what sounds good and not when creating them. Here is the worksheet I got

Part 1

Primary Triads in Root Position (I, IV, V)

(Corresponds to chapters 7 and

What to do:

Root position chords=double the root always.

Keep common tone and move remaining upper two voices stepwise to chord tones of the next triad. If handled correctly, the roots of the chords will be doubled (seen when roots are 4th or 5th apart).

When roots are a 2nd apart, move upper three voices in contrary motion to the bass, making sure that each voice moves to the nearest chord tone.

Maintain proper doubling, range of voices, and usual order of voices.

If you begin in closed position remain in closed position throughout the example; if you begin in open position, remain in open position throughout the example.

What NOT to do:

Avoid crossing voices.

Spacing between adjacent voices should not exceed an octave in the three upper voices. Never greater than two octaves between tenor and bass.

Do not overlap adjacent voices more than a whole step. An overlap occurs between two chords when one voice moves above or below the previous pitch of an adjacent voice. Overlaps of a half or whole step may be employed if it improves voice leading.

Avoid without Exception: Some of this does not pertain to primary triads in root position, but we must learn these rules now for future steps in the process.

Avoid parallel octaves, parallel perfect 5ths, and parallel unisons. Successive intervals containing the same pitches are not considered parallel.

Never double leading tone (7th degree of scale)!!

Do not write pitches out of the range of that particular voice. Keep all four voices within their ranges at all times.

Avoid the melodic augmented 2nd and augmented fourth (triad) in all voices.

NEVER DOUBLE LEADING TONE

Can I use what I learn here to create electronic types of music. Can I expand the four voices into there own triads, but keep each voice as the root but in different octaves?

[Touch The Universe]

Also does anyone know where I can try practice problems online for four part voice leading to see if I understand it all correctly.

[jancivil]

The particulars of these rules serves, for one thing, to guarantee a certain style. For another thing, more abstractly, they serve to guarantee a particular kind of flexibility of movement, as movement is considered favorable in this style. And as a discipline, movement is favorable in order to develop chops.

I assume a narrow meaning of "electronic music" here from my experience, but should I be wrong, a broader meaning may well include the desire to work in polyphony and compose music linearly and this is a good discipline to obtain.

'No parallel fifths' is not going to be doable for a whole lot of different musics, even in a polyphonic approach. 'Never double the leading tone', particularly in 4 vocal parts is a good principle in general terms because of that flexibility/transparency modus operandi... but this is done as a discipline, not so much to have strictures on what you'll do in any case. No parallel fifths is pretty tight shoes.

So whether or not this directly applies to EDM or something, it's something you want in terms of musicianship or not.

[stillshaded]

Well, I think that it's good practice for sure, and like jancivil said, it will only increase your musicianship.

Rather than finding stuff online, I would probably just order a workbook. Doing it by hand would be much much easier IMO.

But what I think is the most important thing is that you learn what this particular style of part writing sounds like. At the very least, it will help you develope an ear for "funky voice leading". If you do this, you won't necessarily have to worry about the rules. When you're writing some music you will just listen and be like "hmm.. the voice leading there sounds kind of iffy." Then you can go in and tweak it without necessarily using rules.

Also, doing it at a keyboard would be a very very good idea, even if it is very slow going at first.

[Touch The Universe]

Thanks for your replies both of you:) I will take your advice and start playing the chords I create for voice leading. I think its a good idea. I remember last class I took I mostly just did the work in the books without actually listening to what I'm doing and how it sounds which I think is a mistake and only taking advantage of half of what music theory can offer me. Hopefully along the way I will come across some really interesting methods that I can imploy in my creation. I'm a beginner at keyboard so yes, it will be slow going at first but it will also be good practice for the keyboard as well. Music theory and keyboard are the areas I really NEED to work on to build more confidence as a musician.

About the practice problems, I was hoping for a site which offers practice problems that I could fill in and once I'm done I could enter the selection and hopefully see if I did the problem correctly. Haven't found anything yet, though I did find some software that would let me know any voice leading problems of the chords i write, but don't want to use it or rely on it too much since I'm learning and don't want all the answers fed to me that way.

[jancivil]

just did the work in the books without actually listening to what I'm doing and how it sounds which I think is a mistake

Yeah, that's not at all sufficient. First course I took, the teacher played everybody's work on the piano. This is where I got the idea I could write, because I could part-write.
It really should generate ideas; try to write melodically in as many parts as you can make work. Study the masters. In music school, kind of the holy grail of this type of study is JS Bach, exemplifying the style these principles outlay.

[Touch The Universe]

Yes, his name came up often, if I'm not mistaken the whole 4 part voice leading came about after dissecting his methods so to speak, but I could be mistaken.

[jancivil]

It has a lot to do with it. Study of JS Bach is at a juncture between more pure linear consideration and defining harmony in blocks. The principles taught today probably have less to do with Fux Gradus ad Parnassum than the approach during say Mozart's time. Or could amount to a separate consideration, or be an historical focus.
But as a generality, JS Bach's model is kind of the point of a lot of the 'rules' IME.

[Touch The Universe]

It has a lot to do with it. Study of JS Bach is at a juncture between more pure linear consideration and defining harmony in blocks. The principles taught today probably have less to do with Fux Gradus ad Parnassum than the approach during say Mozart's time. Or could amount to a separate consideration, or be an historical focus.
But as a generality, JS Bach's model is kind of the point of a lot of the 'rules' IME.

This are more terms that have popped up lately, the vertical and linear aspects of music. I think the vertical is the harmony aspect right.

[jancivil]

yeah, vertical = stacking and making chords.
writing 'linearly' you probably have chords but the thought is rather more fluid. So, you can have a note which belongs to this chord, color over the lines and it doesn't belong to the next chord but a nice color, or tension and maybe you resolve it, maybe not even. You're freer. so I state it 'linear' vs 'blocks'. IE., no dichotomy but a type of approach.

the chords actually were arrived at originally through writing of parts. a holdover from that is the way bass is figured when we're given chords to part-write.
Such as I6/4 is a way to set up the dominant or V; the 6 and 4 represent the intervals figured from the bass; to the root of the C chord and the other part of the chord, the 3rd, E. 4 and 6; so, typical in that type of writing is that the I chord is kind of suspended over the V bass. E and C then move down to D and B {V5/3}. Maybe separately.

IE: This was happening in the parts, before focus on the vertical [chord identity] as the primary meaning got to be a thing.

[jancivil]

You are using 4 voices, or notes stacked to create pieces of music within 4 clef areas. At first this makes sense if it was in different octaves, but why do some of the clefs share the same octave, alto-tenor etc. They are only seperated by a few notes? Why so confusing then?

Clef choice really serves to place things in the range of the part; typically we want to avoid ledger lines as much as possible.
EG: Tenor vs alto clef is not going to be so meaningful to you at this point. I recommend you get on with it without this in your way. I mean focus on it to the extent you're going to use it, if you wind up analyzing scores with C clef(s), learn to recognize it. An online course that mixes that in at this stage looks a bit dodgy for it IMO.
I had two {really top-drawer} courses in part-writing, and the exercises and tests were always in treble/bass as though it was a piano score. Learning to read in multiple clefs another course, ie., for a conductor emphasis. The professor in both cases played through the writing on the piano, apparently.

Avoid the melodic augmented 2nd and augmented fourth (triad) in all voices.

This is some old stuff that I believe came out of church practice, it's just an objection of taste really. Take with a grain of salt.

[dewgong]

I think its very useful to keep one thing in mind when creating chord sequences: Take the shortest route to the next chord. Dont worry too much about the minutiae because those rules were developed for a primarily diatonic context. Electronic music tends to use jazz chords for instance which render these rules fairly unworkable.

If youre going from D minor root position to G minor just shift to Bb and D. You could even bring the D down to Bb and have your bass instrument sound a G which would give you a lush G minor 9. Path of least resistance will give your chord progressions a real sense of direction and unity

[Touch The Universe]

Cool, definitely some food for thought. Will keep that in mind next time I'm creating some chords

[deastman]

I've never studied voice leading, although I understand the concept. What has always confounded me is how to go about actually writing this way. How much of a single voice melody do you write before retracing your steps and starting on the next voice? You don't think in terms of chords at all, right? So you wouldn't be planning the next note for all four voices at the same time? Its the notion of writing four things simultaneously -or not- which perplexes me.

[jopy]

jancivil is clearly the expert here, but I think that the lead line (usually the highest voice) is the one that is written first, and then everything else is written to support that line. it's not writing four independent lines, but rather, writing one line with three other lines that work together that make that one line sound the best it can. i think (again deferring to jancivil for confirmation) that it's not necessarily that different from harmonizing a melody with chords, except the four voice writer is more attentive to the movement among the voices underneath than in conventional chord writing.

i know that gospel choir music uses both chordal (vertical) and melodic (horizontal) approaches to part writing simultaneously, but a little differently than conventional western classical voice leading. parallels are allowed in gospel, but the "rule" is to make sure each individual vocal line is easy to sing on its own. the principal melody is all important, of course, but the writer sits down at the piano after figuring out the most likely chord progression and then would play or sing each line independently to make sure they're all "melodic" enough to be singable for the members of the choir. i think that's part of the way to think about voice leading in general; harmony supports the melody, but each part of the harmony also needs to be able to stand freely and sound good on its own.