How to voice lead a chord progression 

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")

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

Great!!

I've tortured myself trying to teach this to non-classically trained musicians. Once it clicks, it's amazing for them.

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.

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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).

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.

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.

Excellent!

Great to hear 😃😃

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you could also play G as (320033)

The Bach cello suites have some voice leading within arpeggios.

Great 😊

Thanks!

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Great!

I assume you are coming here after watching Matty Greg's videos. If not, I would definitely suggest you go watch them.

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Thank you 😊

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Thanks 😊

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Maybe a video like this in the future about vocal harmony?

Thanks! 😊😊😊

Thanks!

That’s a good idea! I’ll keep it in mind!

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