Lesson 5 - Voicing of a Chord
A voice in the chord is each individual sound that is heard or played in the chord. The term voicing refers to the distribution of the voices, or notes, in the chord. A chord is going to exibit either open voicing or close voicing depending on the distribution of tones.Open Voicing means that the upper three notes are more than an octave apart.
Close Voicing means that the upper three notes are less than an octave apart.
While voicing does not change the function of a chord in a piece of music, it does play a big part in what effect the music has on the listener. Composers and arrangers can use changes in voicing to add variety to a piece of music.
©2004 Keith Prater