Voicing
The particular arrangement of the notes of a chord, including which ones are omitted, doubled or moved to a different octave.
The same chord can be voiced in dozens of ways, and the choice changes how it sounds far more than the chord symbol suggests. Close voicings bunch the notes together and sound full but muddy in a band; spread voicings open the chord up and leave room for a bass and a vocal. Guitarists meet this constantly when they play the same chord in a different position on the neck, since the notes are the same but their order is not.
Example: Playing a C major chord with the third in the bass, rather than the root, is a different voicing of the same chord.
See also
Related
- PageInversion
- PageChord
- PageComping
- PageAugmented chord
- PageBlue note
- PageBlues scale
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley