Voice leading

In music, voice leading is the continuity between pitches or notes played successively in time. For example, when moving from a root position C triad or chord played C-E-G to an F triad in second inversion, played C-F-A, you might say that the middle "voice" rises from E to F while the top "voice" rises from G to A, this being a way to "lead" those voices. Instead of thinking of the two successive chords vertically as separate, we are concentrating on the "horizontal" (temporal or linear) continuity between notes. Concern for voice-leading often means a predominance of stepwise motion and may assist or replace diatonic functionality.

Further reading

• McAdams, S. and Bregman, A. (1979). "Hearing musical streams", in Computer Music Journal 3(4): 26-44 and in Roads, C. and Strawn, J., eds. (1985). Foundations of Computer Music, p.658-698. Cambridge, Massachussetts: MIT Press.