Voice leading

Treat each note in a chord as a separate singer. Voice leading is the path each singer takes when the chord changes. Good voice leading keeps those paths short: a note that both chords share stays where it is, and every other note moves as little as it can.

C, F, G, C the smooth way

Play C, F, G, C on piano with every chord in root position and your hand jumps each time: C E G, then F A C, then G B D. Now voice-lead it instead:

• C: C E G.
• F: C F A. The C stays, E steps up to F, and G steps up to A.
• G: B D G. C steps down to B, F moves down to D, and A steps down to G.
• C: C E G. B steps up to C, D steps up to E, and G stays.

The chords are the same, but your hand hardly moves. Read each line on its own and you get three small tunes: the bottom goes C, C, B, C, the middle E, F, D, E, and the top G, A, G, G. The trick behind it is the inversion: F and G are played with a note other than the root at the bottom.

A voicing is how one chord is laid out (which notes, in what order, in which octave). Voice leading is how you get from one voicing to the next, which is why the two words so often travel together.

Where you meet it

Beginners run into voice leading the moment piano chords start to sound choppy, and inversions are the fix. Songwriters use it on purpose too: a slash chord like G/B is often there so the bass can step from C to B to A.

Gelato Chord does this for you. By default, each note takes the shortest way to the next chord, so sliding across the keys sounds smooth. To practice by hand, try the progressions in How to Write a Chord Progression in 5 Steps or play them on the online chord player.