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Tutorial - Voice Leading
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Voice Leading: Demo and Breakdown

Mike Salow 210 lessons

As I mention in the video, you may recognize this popular jazz standard.

NOTE: Please refer to the tab below for the chords.

Okay, when it comes to voice leading, the main idea is to swiftly move through the chord changes without many large intervallic jumps from chord to chord. This is easily achieved by using a variety of inversions (instead of just using root inversion chords).

You will notice in the example that as I play through each chord I tend to maintain some of the same notes and the ones that change only move a step or two. In this case I tend to play a root inversion followed by the next chord in the 2nd inversion. This tends to be the cycle until we reach the F7 chord.

Once I hit the F7 chord, I start a root inversion and then switch to 1st inversion which brings me much closer to my starting chord which starts the chord cycle all over.

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