Harmony and Chord Voicing on Guitar

Today we're going to talk about harmony and voice leading. It's a bit of a deep cut, but there's something here for anybody who wants to tune in their ear.

Play an A major chord. Inside this chord, each individual note is called a voice. In a chord progression that is voiced in an interesting way, you'll hear each voice move melodically.

We could describe that as a chord progression, but we could also describe it as individual voices moving in interesting ways.

Here's an exercise I like to use: go back to that A chord. Take the top notes and keep them the same, sustaining them. Then take the lowest note (A) and move it down an A major scale.

Can you hear how I'm holding an A chord up top and moving down the notes of the A major scale? That's going to help you hear descending motion in the bass, which is a great place to start when learning counterpoint.