Activities

• Voice Leading Analysis: Work through an analysis of "Sweet Georgia Brown" with the Open Music Theory worksheet (PDF | MuseScore). Follow the directions in the handout. 

• Practice Voice Leading in Repertoire: Write a chordal accompaniment for each of the following songs. Use a simple 3- or 4-note keyboard style voicing with one note in the bass and 2 or 3 notes in the treble. Use "lazy voicing," moving your voices as smoothly as possible. Resolve your 7ths down to the 3rd of the next chord where applicable. 

  • • Richard Rodgers, "My Favorite Things" (PDF | MuseScore)

    • Norah Jones, "Don't Know Why"  (Lead Sheet Notation | MuseScore | PDF) 

      • • When you're finished, compare your accompaniment to a transcription of Jones' performance. How does your voicing compare? How does Jones embellish the chords? What type of non-chord tone(s) do you see in the piano accompaniment? 

• Practice Voice Leading with Extensions: Work through the voice leading exercise on p. 3 of the Open Music Theory worksheet (PDF | MuseScore). Experiment with adding in chordal extensions. Play your examples as a class. 

  • • Resolve your 7ths down to the 3rd of the next chord where possible. 

    • Try alternating 13ths and 9ths in an upper voice. 

• Modeling Chord Voicing in Repertoire: Voice chord progressions from songs by Amy Winehouse, Coldplay, and Ben Folds in this worksheet (DOC | PDF). Then, using a transcription of the first measure, try to imitate the rhythmic chord pattern to match the style in the original song. When finished, compare your chord voicing and rhythm to the artist's voicing. Solutions for each are provided as transcriptions in the anthology. (See the anthology link below).