Lara S asked 8 years ago
Hey Jon,
In exercise 2-4-1 in your 101 course, when doing keyboard style, why are some of the 1st inversion tonic chords spaced the way they are?
Jon Brantingham Staff answered 8 years ago
Spacing of chords is important to ensure the chord sounds full, and rich. Generally the spacing that I use follows the natural harmonic series.
You want to keep the most space between the bass and tenor (bottom and 2nd from the bottom) and then usually no more than an octave between any two adjacent voices above the bass. So the Soprano voice (top) and the Alto voice (2nd from top) should be no more than an octave, and the Alto and Tenor should be no more than an octave.
This keeps things well blended and balanced.
As you go higher in the range, the notes can be closer together and still sound good. When you cannot fit anymore chord tones between two adjacent notes, they are called a closed voicing. When you can fit other chord tones between two adjacent notes, it is called open voicings.
Bass notes close together tend to sound very muddy.
Lara S
replied 8 years ago Thanks Jon. I just rewatched the video for that exercise and it explained why space is sometimes used in keyboard style.