Linear Bass Motion

Linear Bass Motion Linear bass motion (or rather bass lines with strong melodic quality/voice leading) in general feel very attractive to the ear. Their power is actually strong enough to make even the strangest chord progressions on top of that plausible to our ear....

Voice Leading is King

Voice Leading is King Good voice leading beats any other rule. This was already valid in Bach’s times where there were fifth parallels and doubled thirds in the chord because the voice leading of the individual voices was so strong that it could easily justify for...

Movement of Inner Voices

Movement of Inner Voices Most of the time, when arranging chords, you should try to move the “inner voices” (=all voices except for bass line and potential top melody line) by the shortest possible distance from chord to chord, using inversions of chords but also...

Hook Lines in Film Scoring

Hook Lines in Film Scoring The concept of a “hook-line” – as it is called in the pop world – is to create one or several elements that stick in the memory of the listener and create something that is easily remembered and recognized once it appears again. As opposed...

Melody Notes as Chord Extensions

Melody Notes as Chord Extensions When harmonizing melodies, it can sound musically more interesting to place key notes of the melody higher up in the chord structure (like 7th, 9th etc.) than playing around root, third or fifth. Eg. you have a melody sequence of...