[Smt-talk] I - II- IV as a progression (counterpoint)

[Sean Sovine]

 From the perspective of someone who was first a self-taught guitarist  
and then went on to study theory and composition at a university, I  
make the following observation:  Guitarists trained in rock and pop  
styles don't usually consider voice leading in a classical sense when  
coming up with accompaniments. However, when vocal melodies are  
created, such lines naturally arise from the nature of the human  
voice.  Specifically, the fact that it is easier to sing stepwise  
makes vocal melodies more likely to take advantage of voice leading.   
This usually happens intuitively in this context, in my experience.

Sean Sovine
Composer and Teacher



On Sep 3, 2009, at 10:07 AM, "jcovach" <jcovach at mail.rochester.edu>  
wrote:

> I realize that counterpoint/voiceleading was raised in the context  
> of classical
> music examples, and this is appropriate and in keeping with  
> traditional
> approaches, given the importance of attending to such matters in  
> that repertory
> (this is an informal and oversimplifying formulation, I know, but  
> please stick
> with me).
>
> But in styles where counterpoint and voiceleading are not central  
> features, are
> they still operative, and/or should they still be operative, in  
> defining the
> musical structures that emerge?  Or to put a little less abstractly:  
> if somebody
> is strumming away on the guitar, playing a chord sequence using the  
> conventional
> voicings and with no regard to traditional voiceleading--or at  
> least, no
> *conscious* regard--is it helpful to account for the resultant music  
> in terms
> strongly directed by voiceleading or contrapuntal concerns and  
> practices? Or
> (and I hope I'm not leading the witness here) does appealing to  
> counterpoint
> risk reading the practices of one musical style onto the other,  
> overdetermining
> and perhaps distorting our interpretation of the strummy guitar  
> progression?
>
> Reading this over again, this looks like a PhD prelim question.   
> Sorry about
> that!
>
> John Covach
> Professor of Music and Chair, Music Department, University of  
> Rochester
> Professor of Theory, Eastman School of Music
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