Voice leading is the way each note of one chord moves to a note of the next. When you play triads on three strings, each string carries one voice, so you can see and feel exactly how far every voice travels.
The rule: move each voice as little as possible
To go from one chord to the next, choose the inversion of the next chord whose notes are closest to the ones you are playing. Keep a shared note on its string and move the others by the smallest steps. Adding up the semitones that each voice travels gives a simple measure: the smaller the total, the smoother the change.
You need no new shapes for this: the three inversions of each chord are the choices.
I, IV and V in every key
The I, IV and V chords are the major triads on the first, fourth and fifth degrees of a major key, the backbone of countless songs.
| Key | I | IV | V |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C | F | G |
| F | F | Bb | C |
| Bb | Bb | Eb | F |
| Eb | Eb | Ab | Bb |
| Ab | Ab | Db | Eb |
| Db | Db | Gb | Ab |
| Gb | Gb | Cb | Db |
| B | B | E | F# |
| E | E | A | B |
| A | A | D | E |
| D | D | G | A |
| G | G | C | D |
In Gb the IV chord is written Cb, the same sound as B, so that every chord keeps its own letter in the key.
Example: C, F and G on strings 1–2–3
Start with C in root position at frets 5-5-3 (C–E–G, from the G string to the high E string).
- C to F: F in second inversion at frets 5-6-5 (C–F–A). C stays where it is, E moves up one semitone to F and G moves up two to A: 3 semitones in total.
- F to G: G in first inversion at frets 4-3-3 (B–D–G). C moves down one semitone to B, F down three to D and A down two to G: 6 semitones. The second inversion at frets 7-8-7 moves the same, but the first inversion keeps your hand where it already is.
The whole progression stays between frets 3 and 6: three chords without moving your hand up or down the neck.
Watch every voice
The shapes are only half of the exercise. As you play a path, notice which notes stay and which move, and what each note becomes in the next chord. From C to F above, the C on the G string stays, but turns from the root of C into the fifth of F, and the E on the B string moves up a semitone to become the root of F.
That awareness is what you are really practicing. With it, you hear where each change is heading, find the next chord without searching for it and, later, improvise over the progression by moving from the notes of one chord to the closest notes of the next.
Step by step
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Learn the three inversions first
Voice leading uses the shapes you already know. Before connecting chords on a string set, learn the three inversions of the I, IV and V chords on it.
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Play I in root position
Start with the I chord of the key in root position (1–3–5).
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Find the closest IV
Of the three shapes of the IV chord, choose the one that moves the voices the least from I. If two shapes tie, take the one that keeps your hand in the same area.
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Find the closest V from IV
Make the same choice from the IV chord to the V chord. Then play the three chords as a loop, first without a metronome and then at a slow, a medium and a fast tempo.
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Start again from the other inversions of I
Repeat the path starting on I in first inversion, and then in second inversion. Each start takes the progression to another area of the neck.
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Go through all 12 keys
Follow the cycle of fourths, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D, G, and then take the same routine to the other string sets.