First inversion chords are most useful for voice leading. See how the Bass has stepwise motion in both of these examples from the first inversion ii chord to the V chord. The left side has the ii chord in root position, whereas the left side has the ii chord in first inversion and it eliminates the leap from the ii to the V chord.
Fig.1 first inversion chords
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Here, the bass also has a second from the first inversion ii to the second inversion I Chord.
Fig.2 First inversion chord leading to second inversion chord
These are known as Perfect Authentic Cadences. They are Authentic cadences because they are V-I, and they are perfect because the root of the chords are in the bass. There are different types of cadences that will be discussed later.
Fig.1 Perfect authentic cadences in C Major.
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Fig.2 Lack of common tone in root movement by fifth.
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Notice that in the previous example there are common notes from chord to chord. This is good voice leading practices because the singers will be less likely to miss the note. Because they are singing the same tone from chord to chord.
In Fig.2, however, each new chord every voice has a new pitch to sing.
Fig.3 change of structure from chord to chord
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Changing the structure from Chord to chord is useful to avoid awkward leaps and bad voice leading. as demonstrated above in the first example, the structure is close in the first chord (V) and open in the second (I). the reverse is shown in the example on the right.
Part II - Plagal cadences
a plagal cadence is the subdominant (IV) chord leading to the tonic (I) chord
Fig.4 Plagal cadence in C Major
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Fig.5 Authentic cadence with plagal extension.
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As demonstrated in the example above, the plagal cadence is most commonly an extension to the authentic cadence. And is most commonly found at the end of a piece.
Part III - Half cadences
Fig.6 Half cadences
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A half cadence is a cadence that ends on the dominant (V) chord
In context, the word "voice" does not necessarily mean that the music is to be sung. It simply means that there are more than one melodic strand, each of which are called a "voice." They fit together to make up pat of a larger texture.The process of creating a multi-voice texture is called part writing.
Part I-Introduction to part writing.
In general, there are four voices to write for: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass.
In general, the order goes like this: Soprano on top, Alto directly below Soprano, Tenor directly below Alto, and Bass on bottom.
Fig.1 part writing voices
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Part II-Open and close structure
Close structure, the notes are arranged so that there is not more than a fifth between voices.
Fig.2 Close structure
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Open structure- where there is more than a fifth between two or more voices.
The Xs indicate chord tones that have been skipped.
Fig.3 Open structure
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Part III- Voice Ranges.
In general, voices should stay within these ranges. Of course there are exceptions.
Also voices should not cross meaning for example. the Alto is higher than the soprano. The ranges do overlap quite a bit, however they should not cross.
Fig.4 Vocal ranges
Part IV-Part writing practices.
Parallel intervals of a fifth and octave are frowned upon when part writing. Here is an example of parallel octaves in part writing
Fig.5 Parallel octaves
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When writing repeated chords, it is good practice to alternate between close and open structure.
