What is "voice leading"

Voice leading is the way that musical parts (voices) set up and achieve melodic, harmonic and formal goals using pitch and rhythm. Often, a variety of parameters work together to produce different weights of arrival. Such parameters may include "the interaction between chords and lines within harmonic progressions [...], the role of outer-voices counterpoint, the types of melodic motion, the retention of common tones, [and] the treatment of dissonance.” Monophonic lines also exhibit voice leading.

Voice leading practices can be codified into rules for pedagogical purposes. In these settings, “voice leading” is often synonymous with “part writing,” and the “rules” are usually applied in exercises in four-part harmonic writing and in 18th-century counterpoint. David Huron has demonstrated that many of the standard pedagogical rules have a basis in perceptual principles.

A more nuanced view of voice leading principles is found in the theories of Heinrich Schenker. Schenkerian analysis examines how the outer voices work together to establish form in common-practice music. See Linear progression for an example from Beethoven's Sonata op. 109.

Rigorous concern for voice leading in all parts is more a feature of common-practice music, although jazz and pop music also demonstrate attention to voice leading to varying degrees:

• "At the surface level, jazz voice-leading conventions seem more relaxed than they are in common-practice music."
• "[Although it’s untrue] that popular music has no voice leading in it, [...] the largest amount of popular music is simply conceived with chords as blocks of information, and melodies are layered on top of the chords."